Polerman-Alright there are a few people I would like to thank. My best friend Jesse and all my reviewers but most of all Lilikoifish thank you all. On another note I think I gave the Cardinal two names on accident. Cardinal Bell and Cardinal Murdock, and well I think I'll use Bell for the name but that's just me, so sorry for the screw up.

Alright the Chapter needs redoing because half way through Patrick became Fredrick on accident. So if you see any Fredrick's in this chapter just thin Fredrick as Patrick alright.

Disclaimer-I don't and probably never will own Tales of Symphonia

Born a Knight

Chapter three: Preparation and leave and oh dang?

Cid awoke in the dark barracks. 'Not the most morning like place.' Cid thought bitterly as he rose from a mere two hours of sleep. The cleaning of the damned attackers had taken longer than expected, carried well on into sunrise before Cid could even get into his bed. 'And it still smells of frick'n blood.' Cid thought as he cursed himself for not going home when he could have to get a better night's sleep.

Cid recovered his armor and sword from the floor and roughly slipped on the blood stained chest plating. Carrying sword in hand he trudged up stairs and was quickly approached by his brother Linkin. "Well you ready?" he questioned obviously aware of his lack of sleep.

"Would it matter if I wasn't?" Cid shot back forgetting rank and seeing his older brother Linkin just as his older brother and not as his superior officer.

"No…not really, we'd still send you in." his older brother said and sounded as if he had more to say. "Ready or not? eh little brother?"

Cid just nodded at his older brother as he laughed seeing himself as funny. Cid was quickly ushered to the armory by his brother. Cid walked to the east wing and stopped to look at the throne room.

The throne room was still being heavily cleaned in hopes of being ready for these mornings' appointments. Cid eyed dried blood stains that covered an already crimson rug, and just felt sadness for his fallen brethren and enemy alike. The only reason he had for it was the only one he could think of and it was. They were all victims, victims to violence.

Cid continued on after a few more minutes of silent pray for them. He quickly entered the east wing, went down to the dungeon area, continued to walk past it, up into the small armory which was also part of the gladiator preparation area, Cid walked into the main lobby and into the far back room.

"Well you ready for this?" questioned a wounded Patrick who was probably put on this type of shift because of major wounds.

"Hell no."

"Well can't help you there. But I can help here." Fredrick motioned to the weapons that lay on the table in front of him. Cid eyed the deadly selection as his hand hovered slightly above the table.

"Having trouble choosing?" Patrick questioned breaking Cid's concentration on the table as he tried to sense a weapon of superior chi. Most thought Cid weird because of this chi sensing thing but its no different then what the elves do because chi meditation is an alternative to sensing mana, except only people of elven blood can sense mana but humans who have trained their sense in the art of meditation can sense the equivalent of mana and that is known as chi.

Cid finishing with his meditation was not convinced with the selection. "Think you could just sharpen this?" Cid said to his cripple friend as he placed his fathers' blade on the table.

"Sure give me a sec." Patrick said as he reached for the double edge on the table and shouted. "Bruce think you could come in here for a moment?"

The door swung open with a man with bronze skin and Mohawk like hair. Muscles made more than nine tenths of him. He only wore a pair of dirty brown short pants and sandals.

Patrick handed his fathers sword to Bruce. Bruce eyed the blade for second and unsheathed it and put a look of disgust as he swung the blade weakly. He went over to his sharpener and worked the pedal as fast as he could, then put the blades edge to the wheel and sparks flew like snow in a blizzard.

Cid eyes shot open as he witnessed the spectacular blizzard of sparks. Patrick noticed his friend's dismay and put a hand on his shoulder trying to calm him down a bit but Cid was not angered or pleased with this, all he did was look blankly forward.

A few minutes later Bruce came back with Cid's blade with a huge grin on his face. He grunted and handed Cid his sword. Cid saw his father's blade in perfect shape, even better than when he took it from his father when he was young. Cid touched the edge with the tip of his index finger and could tell it was sharp by the small trickle of blood seeping down from a small cut on the tip of the finger.

Cid finally came back to the world around him in a few more awestruck moments. "You think you could get…about ten more of these?" Cid question Patrick as he held a small dagger in his hand.

"Sure give me a sec…" Patrick signaled Bruce to get ten more daggers. "Anything else?" questioned Patrick

"Sure have any bows or arrows?"

"No…but we do have something way better…" Patrick then reached for something under the table and produced a crossbow wrist attachment. "This baby was developed by our half elven department." Patrick proceeded to demonstrate on how the wrist bow three thousand worked. "Easy as pie my friend, holds forty crossbow bolts and barely weighs anything."

Bruce returned with a utility belt with ten daggers aligned on it and several other loops for other weaponry. Bruce also carried a funky looking sack and another bag but slightly smaller.

"And these are your essentials that you'll need on your mission." Patrick motioned to the funky looking sack that Bruce sat down on the table with a loud clunk. Fredrick spilled the contents onto the table and began listing them off. "Alright you have four wing packs three containing rheiards and one E.C., one communicator, two tracer rings, a map of the new world, and…" Patrick looked behind him and all around the room before he revealed what was clutched so carefully in his hands.

"…One exsphere and key crest." Patrick finished revealing the small orb and attachment.

"Exsphere…exsphere, I thought we rid ourselves of these damned things?" Cid said loudly in the small chamber.

"Cid I know how skeptical you are about these things. But if this damned thing might help you on your mission the king would like you to use it."

"I'm not using that thing Pat; I'm just not going to." Cid said plainly as he strapped the utility belt to his waist.

Patrick waited till his friend turned around and slipped the exsphere into his friends travel pack. "Alright there are a few other things…two purgatory seals and five wind guardian seals." Fredrick slipped seven card-like objects from his pocket onto the table. "Now watch out there only copies and mock ups of the originals so there not as powerful."

"Purgatory seals? Tracer rings? And what's this about a communicator?" Cid asked baffled about all this technology that was being thrown at him.

"Alright, you see purgatory seals will resurrect you if…you know…kick the bucket and fail, now tracer rings are basically a way of keeping track of you, and the communicator." Patrick said as he held up a small bowl and two rings for Cid to see. "Now all you need to do is add water into the bowl and…" Patrick poured some water into the bowl from his canteen.

Cid took the small bowl and looked into the water and he saw a bleak image of his friend. Cid looked over at his friend who had a similar bowl. "Nice…" Cid said as he fiddled with the small ring. "…anything special to these rings? Like adding water or clicking my heels?" Cid questioned his friend.

"Nope there straight forward, we just use this map here to locate you." Patrick said as he pointed to the huge map of the new world at the back of the room and on the Meltokio area was a red and a green dot that probably was the location of the two rings.

"We?" questioned Cid as he eyed his wounded friend.

"Yeah me, Bruce, Marcus, and Emily will be supporting you on this mission."

"Who's Marcus and Emily?" questioned Cid as he looked around for ether of them.

"Marcus is probably our most senior agent to date and Emily is the receptionist outside in the lobby." Patrick said pointing out into the lobby's general direction.

Cid had a look of dumbfoundment on his face as he thought of his 'support' for this mission; he thought are they even taking this serious, trusting the king's fate to a blacksmith, a part time receptionist, a senior agent who's probably been pulled from retirement, and a knight who mainly has been living off his family's reputation.

Cid finally came to his senses when he noticed how much he would stand out in the middle of a crowd wearing a huge selection of tools of death. "Hey ever think of something more casual Pat?" Cid questioned as he presented himself to Patrick.

"Yeah of course we do…just a sec…Bruce! Get Cid's cloak…and think you could find Marcus for me?" Patrick shouted to Bruce who was currently sharpening a huge battle axe. Bruce made a grunt as he walked out of the room.

"Hey Patty think you could get my desk ready?" shouted a women's voice.

"Sure thing Emi." Patrick said as he went over to a small desk over by the map and carried it over to the table.

A small brunette woman with glasses and her hair up in pigtails came in clutching a bundle of books to her chest entered. She gave Cid a small smile and poked out her hand. "You must be Cid. I'm Emily Bach your communications support for this mission."

Cid took her hand and gave a friendly shake and a small smile in return. Fredrick approached to break up the small little get together when a bundled up cloak flew at him and wrapped around his head. Bruce entered in with a grim smile about him with a slightly taller man with a pair of cold blue eyes and neat gray hair.

Patrick finally wrestled the cloak off his face and gave Bruce a frowning look and quickly looked a Marcus. "It's about time Marcus, afraid you wouldn't get here…got the stuff?"

Marcus looked at the base of operations and then back to Patrick. "Yeah I got the stuff." Marcus then threw a pair of glasses at Cid.

Cid caught them easily and put them on and noticed the once slightly dark room went clear as day. "Are these things coming with me on the mission?"

"You bet…but be warned they are prototypes so they may mess up when it is very inconvenient for you." Patrick said as he picked up a sword from the table and started swinging wildly.

"Alright you look set…" Emily began as she threw cid his cloak. "…good luck Cid." Emily put her signature smile on as Cid turned around and exited out into the lobby armed with everything he thought he needed for the oncoming mission.

Shortly after Cid has left

Patrick watched his friend leave and close the door behind him. Fredrick then slouched in the nearest chair by the table and thought. 'Man didn't know he was that sensitive about exspheres.'

Patrick then got up from his chair and walked over to the map, looked at the two tracers, currently outside the city gates. "Activate on the third tracer Emily." Suddenly a golden dot appeared with the other two dots. Okay everything is set now let's go in for the checkmate.

Outside the city gates

Cid had just opened one of the wing packs containing a blue rheiard. With a puff of smoke the rheiard appeared, Cid then mounted the transport and his first experience on a rheiard came to mind as he fiddled with its controls and laughed slightly under his breath.

He quickly ascended into the clear sky and flew onward to Mizuho. After an hour of flying over Sylvarant he finally spotted the forested area he was searching for it was just southward of Luin. Easily walked to but hard to find and heavily guarded. 'But if they kept their security the same as usual that would mean that I will have to only deal with trainees and not hand picked elite.' Cid thought as he landed near the outskirts of the forest.

Cid packed his rheiard away in its wing pack and started to walk to the forest tying to remember if he knew the guard shifts well enough to avoid fighting because even if he was an old friend and citizen to Mizuho doesn't mean they would open their doors wide open for him. They were people of protocol, do it by the book, better safe than sorry types they wouldn't allow an outsider in so easily.

Cid reached the dense foliage of trees and other vegetation that made a wall around Mizuho and managed to get through it and on his way. Cid quickly made it to one of the few pathways him and Taki use to walk. 'Patrolled, yes but easily a dozen places to hide before the guards could even know anything happened.' Cid thought as he walked the pathway cautiously listening for anything suspicious that may jump out at him.

After much cautious walking Cid finally made it to a small clearing where he quickly surveyed the clearing it had a small river running through the middle of it stretching to the far left and continuing into the forest as it did the same to his right, the clearing had a wagon trail that crossed over a bridge and probably into Mizuho, and a few small farm fields populated the other side of the river.

Cid thought widely, thinking what ifs and what would happen if…his thoughts were just a jumble of scenarios that equaled a successful result or a huge failure. But Cid didn't have time to go around it or to do something as equally time consuming. So without further thought Cid made a step forward into the picture perfect clearing and another and another after that till he was almost near the small bridge. Cid then sensed it, weak chi levels at least two of them but he sensed a third somewhere further off but it was way stronger than these two.

Cid sensed them coming closer. He suddenly thought of something that may be fun. Cid put a smile on and turned around and sure enough there were to ninjas standing there. "So how long were you guys planning to stand there?" Cid questioned the two dark figures. They quickly went into attack position swords drawn and ready to move when ready. Cid's smile grew a little wider. He drew his sword and moved two steps forward and twirled the sword twice to his right and firmly put it out in front of him ready for a fight.

The two figures shot forward. Cid could easily see them coming toward him, one in front of the other. The first one came in for a thrust, oldest trick in the book, first guy stabs me in the gut and the other chops my head off. 'But not today and not now.' Cid thought as he parried the first attacker's blade off to his right and at the speed he was going he defiantly wouldn't be getting up quickly. The second was still going in for the slice to the neck. Cid quickly guarded with his blade and forced the second attacker into a stand off his blade against Cid's. The ninja was very young, Cid could tell by the way his eyes darted around and seemed to be waiting for someone to help him. Cid easily let his left hand off the hilt of his sword and grabbed his opponent's right arm which was holding the blade and disarmed the ninja of his katana. Cid now having two blades slipped behind the second attacker and brought both blades to his throat his buddy knew what would happen if he tried anything and stopped his assault. Cid quickly disarmed the ninja of all his other accessories and shoved him away. Cid pt his smile back on and motioned for them to try again. The only one armed shot forward and was easily guarded and disarmed as the other was.

After shoving him away and kicking his accessories aside he smiled and said. "You guys should really work on defense, because you guys got offense down. But you guys only count on speed and precise attacks so that can be easily used against you. So its just a suggestion you guys." Cid's smile disappeared when he sensed another chi force. 'Most likely the other one I sensed earlier.' Cid thought as he turned around and saw another ninja but this ninja's chi levels were way stronger then the other two. Suddenly Cid sensed another one but it felt even stronger than the one in front of him, maybe even stronger than him. Cid saw the other ninja appear from nowhere and moved to the others side.

The other two Cid had disarmed moved into position and were ready to use hand to hand techniques. But before they could begin their assault the one on the right in front of him signaled the unarmed men to stand down and then drew out a weird card and held it out in front just in case Cid tried anything. The one to the left drew a thin double edge sword out and went into an offensive position. The card wielder then went into an at ease position and signaled the other to attack.

Cid eyed the one to the one to the left. As the ninja moved forward Cid made an easy discovery that anyone with half a brain could make. The ninja was a women. Without the obvious anatomy of women staring him in the face, the only way he could have figure it out was by the way she walked, stood, carried herself, and how she wasn't overly muscular like most male ninja's. She had Muscles yes, but a slim sort of muscle physique.

While Cid was studying his opponent he failed to notice the card wielders disappearance. Cid looked the approaching ninjas eyes…gray; most people didn't have gray shades of eyes. Then the eyes darted inhumanly fast to Cid's right. 'Ah crap!' Cid thought as he finally sensed the other too late and then quickly swung his sword to his right. The card wielder easily dodged the blade and disappeared into a puff of smoke. Cid quickly knew what would be next and put the blade out in front of him and defended against the sword wielders blade. Since Cid was slightly caught off guard by the sudden attack, his strength was weakening on him and she was winning. Then Cid sensed the card wielder coming, a puff of smoke appeared by Cid's left shoulder and then felt a card attach to his shoulder and heard her shout. "Pyre Seal!" then Cid suddenly launched sideways and landed hard on his side but quickly recovered and prepared for another attack. The sword wielder came as strong as last time but Cid was prepared this time and easily parried the attack and sense the card wilders attack before she even tried to attack. The card latched on to his sword and she shouted. "Pyre Seal!" Cid was launched sideways again but he stayed steady and slide on his feet for a meter or so and quickly went into a counter attack. Cid launched himself towards the two recovering ninjas; he used his sword to tie the sword wielder down and then used his left fist to attack the card wielder. He sent a left jab to he face but it was quickly deflected away. He retracted his fist and defended against a series of attacks. Some landed and some where deflected or guarded but he just had to roll with the punches. Cid could tell he couldn't keep this up. He was winning against the sword but the hand to hand was going to be the winning factor to this. If he could just get the sword wielder to submit he could have his undivided attention to the real danger. Cid finally saw it. The card wielder didn't even see it. She was open for attack, she was too caught up in the rapid succession of punches being landed to even care about it, the card wielders stomach was wide open. Cid didn't care if she noticed or not and shot his left fist for the card wilders stomach; she quickly jumped back and clutched her gut in pain.

The two other men who Cid easily beat came running to her side and helped her get away. The sword wielder now saw she was alone and quickly broke from the sword lock and dashed a safe distance away. Cid faced her, she was breathing heavily and looked as if she was going to collapse but there she stood defiant.

Cid could only smile. 'Maybe this was going to be easier than I thought.' Cid thought arrogantly as he surveyed his injured opponent and stood ready. Cid's mind raced as he thought on how he could finish this fight but failed to notice his drop of adrenaline and how bad his wounds were. 'Okay I'll out power her. She's too weak to withstand a full head on strike.' Cid knew what he was going to do now and acted. Cid raced forward and swung his sword as hard as he could. Cid felt excruciating pain in his ribs and stopped short on his attack that should have ended it all. His blade was easily deflected away to the left. Cid stumbled to the left and hurriedly recovered and was now feeling the extent of his wounds. Cid saw the attacker coming and guarded her blade and tried to use his left hand to get a few punches in but her right leg shot up and threatened to do something Cid was familiar with. (The move consisted with her getting both of her legs on Cid's shoulders and snapping his neck and ending the battle.) But Cid knew she needed both legs on his shoulders and wrapped both of his legs around her left leg.

The two enemies were now face to face, entwined, and were fighting to get the advantage to turn the tide of the battle. Cid had his blade pushing against hers and would eventually meet at her chest and do some damage. The ninja had her one leg near Cid's head and her other leg which was thrashing wildly to get free and snap Cid's neck.

Cid was loosing his grip on the ninja's leg and if that happened consider this a failure and the end of Cid's life. Cid strengthen the pressure on the sword and she thrashed more harder. Cid looked into the endless gray pools that were her eyes and she did the same. There was no hatred between the two, all there was, was the will to see the next day and complete their missions but they both stood in each others ways determined to make sure the other did not succeed and they did. Cid looked deeper into the pools and noticed, their battle…was a stalemate. No one was going to walk away alive from this confrontation if they continued fighting. Cid needed his feet to get a better leverage and would easily plunge his blade into her, but if he released her left leg it would kill him. So to sum it up Cid kills her slowly but gets his neck snapped and his head chopped off and sent back home and then the king would be angered and then war. Cid didn't want a war to happen because of him so he looked into her eyes one last time and started to release some of the pressure and released her leg.

She in return lowered her right leg and drew back her sword. They still looked deep into each others eyes, breathing heavily, sheathing their swords, bowing, and finally submitted to their wounds. 'This brings back memories.' Cid looked back in his memories for the rough training sessions he had against his rival while learning the 'Seven Dancing Blades' HE looked at his opponent and thought. 'Man I almost got my ass kicked by a girl…but it wouldn't have been the first time.' Cid staggered over to his opponent and fell short on his approach and grabbed her arm on his way down. She managed to give off a yelp before Cid clumsily fell onto her like a drunken idiot. He then was looking into her gray pools once again but this time she had the advantage, Cid felt cold metal against his neck and smiled.

As he looked into her eyes he could already tell she wasn't going to do anything. Cid continued to look at her and thought back to something him and a friend always wanted to say in this type of situation. "If you're going to do it…just do it." Cid said in a fake dwarven accent. He heard a small chuckle from the ninja and then rolled off her.

Cid helped her to her feet and then finally saw who he had been fighting Taki. "So how long in till you were going to fill me in on why we were fighting?" Cid questioned as he put on a smile and scratched at his faint facial hair.

The ninja pulled off her mask revealing the Taki Cid knew. Somewhat long black hair kept in a neat ponytail, pale skin, and lips of cherry blossoms, eyes of gray, and a smile that was unique to everyone. "I thought you'd be smart enough to figure it out sooner or later." She said as she ruffled her hair slightly.

Cid looked at her and a flood of memories Cid had stored away rushed at him. Cid was now feeling stabs of senseless joy and happiness as he approached her slowly. But Taki made a different approach and launched herself at him wrapping her arms around his shoulders and burying her face into his chest. "Cid I missed you so much."

Cid just looked at her for a moment and wrapped his arms around her and felt confused. Confused about their last meeting and how unbelievable it was and how the very same unbelievable reason he had that horrid confrontation was hugging him and saying how much she missed him. "Yeah I missed you to." He said monotone.

She looked up at him and had a bunched up look to her and said. "What that's it? I missed you to; no over the top I missed you more and never ever want to leave you ever."

"No then that would start a useless argument of 'no I missed you more' back and forth." Cid shot back with a smile.

"Yeah but I like those types of arguments."

"Well of course you do, but that's just because I let you win all the time."

"Well…Cid how've you been?" She said as she let go of him and backed away slightly.

"I've been better." Cid said as he approached her. She just motioned towards the bridge. Cid began to follow the path across the bridge and was about to talk, then noticed how Taki wasn't following him across the bridge. 'Shit how does she do that?' Cid thought and put a smile on and chuckled slightly knowing he couldn't do a dang thing about it. Cid just stopped walking and felt a small pin prick at the back of his neck and fell forward.

Polerman-Yo people sorry for the long wait but it's just that stuff happens and this just doesn't become my number one priority and I end up doing other things so my apologies. And on another note I may not update my other story that much anymore because I'm seriously in a writers block on that story.