Hello again you fine folk! So the Olympics are on. It's kind of cool to think that people from all over the world are on this sight. Hurrah, for unity! I shouldn't have had that last soda… Anyway I don't own Tales of Symphonia.

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The long summer days passed quickly for the two friends. More than once they spent happy nights under the stars, talking together. Kratos and Yuan were becoming more comfortable with their conversation topics. Neither of them felt any fear of mentioning species anymore. If an argument ever got heated one of them would bring up that they were brothers and they both calm down.

Their work, too, was progressing. Yuan was absorbing everything Kratos taught him. He was reading longer and longer books, and his math skills were nearly on par with Kratos's. The two were also coming along with the hole. Kratos had become much stronger. Gone were the days when two scoops set him to a fit of whining, and with Yuan's help the task went quickly. Until one day near the end of vacation, they were finished.

" Yuan, we're done," Kratos said in disbelief. Both boys stood in their empty club house. Yuan had just brought down the last support beam. and together they put it in place.

" I can't believe we built this," Yuan said looking around at what they'd built. " This place is huge." The clubhouse was a fair size for what it was. It was six feet, nine feet where it went all the way up to the surface. The floor was 6 by 4 and they couldn't have been prouder.

" I hope we can get everything in," Kratos mumbled to himself. He was inspecting the entry way, and hoping that all he bought would fit through the hole.

" I just hope we can get the stuff out of your house without raising suspicion," Yuan grumbled climbing up the ladder. Both the ladder and the wooden support beams had been put up during the digging process so that they could get out and avoid collapse.

Together the boys made their way towards the mansion. Both were hoping Kratos's mother was busy. Neither of them thought she would much enjoy the dirt covered boys walking back and forth through the house.

With as much stealth as they could muster, the two boys crept up to Kratos's room. Once there they shut the door behind them and relaxed. Kratos went into his little office, he had been using it less and less these days, and recently its only use had been holding the necessary equipment for their clubhouse.

" Were gonna need a wagon to get all this stuff out of here," Yuan said as he joined his friend. Kratos nodded, and bit hi lip trying to come up with some sort of plan.

" We could use a sled," Kratos suggested, " I think there's one in the shed. I'll get the shield-door while I'm at it. Yuan inspected the items as he waited for Kratos to return. He had grown up without any knowledge of machines, and he discovered they fascinated him. He was amazed that simply by using mana, a person could cool the air, or heat it, or do any number of things that seemed impossible. Although, Yuan thought as he fiddled with the buttons on the air conditioner, it wasn't all that different from magic. The humans were trying to compensate.

When Kratos returned the two boys loaded everything unto the sled. Together they pulled it down the hallway. The sled moved easily on the carpet, however things kept falling out and one of them would have to fix it. When they reached the stairs, they took everything out and moved them separately. And then proceeded out of the house and towards their secret base.

" That sure took a lot of time," Yuan grumbled when they reached their destination. " Aw well, at least we did." For the rest of the day the boys spent their time, bringing everything inside the hole. This was quite a challenge considering the opening wasn't very big. They spent most of their time with the book shelf which had to be taken apart and put back together once it was inside. But as the sun was setting the boys stood inside their finished masterpiece grinning. Kratos plopped himself down into one of the bean bag chairs and sighed. Yuan fell next to him laughing.

" Yep, tomorrow were gonna start," he said.

" Start what?" Kratos asked, cocking his head as he turned to look at his friend.

" You'll see," was the only response he got.

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The next day Kratos woke Yuan early, and they left the house together with breakfast in hand.

" So what are we going to do?" Kratos asked, he had been wondering all night what Yuan had in mind and couldn't wait to find out.

" Today the real training starts," Yuan told him, Kratos wasn't sure how he felt about this. Yuan lead the way into the club house, and Kratos followed him apprehensively. As soon as he got off the ladder, Yuan began to push all the furniture to one side.

" Alright Kratos, it's time for you to learn to fight. First we're going to practice blocking. You're biggest problem is that the moment you see some one coming you give up. So before you fight back you gotta protect your self. Now come here," Yuan gave his directions , and Kratos slowly walked to where he was directed.

" Alright now when I throw a punch I want you to block me like this," Yuan moved Kratos's arms so that the crossed in front of his face. " Alright go." As soon as Yuan moved to make his attack, Kratos squeaked and buried his head in his arms.

" Kratos, that does not count as block. Now I'm gonna do it real slow," Yuan spoke calmly, and moved to strike again. After a few times of this Yuan became frustrated.

" If you don't block this time I really will hit you," He growled in frustration.

" But Yuan I'm so scared. Can't we practice something else?" Kratos whined. Before Kratos could cry, Yuan agreed.

" Fine now here's how you do a punch,". For the rest of the day the two practiced without much success. Kratos flinched instead of blocked, and his punches hurt about as much as a pillow. Yuan patted his friend on the back as they left, comforting him and saying he had done well. Kratos didn't believe him and they went to bed without their best spirits.

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The last two weeks of summer went by painfully. Kratos came along slowly. Although his strength was greatly improved, the moment he was faced with a fight situation he lost all confidence. While he did show some improvement, both boys were glad when school came around again to shorten their training sessions.

And so their old schedule returned, and once again Yuan found himself idling away half his day outside the schoolhouse, and Kratos found himself sitting through long classes. For along while nothing seemed to change. Weeks went by with little difference between them. The boys were bored. One day however Kratos broke the monotony.

" Guess what tomorrow is Yuan," Kratos said as they lay down to sleep. Yuan sighed, the human had been in a rather giddy mood all day and he found it grating.

" Wednesday," Yuan responded a bored tone. Kratos had recently introduce the days of the week, and Yuan was sick of pop quizzes.

" No, well yes, but besides that. It's my birthday!" Kratos beamed at his friend.

" Oh, is that important?" Yuan asked.

" Yes, birthdays are very important. That's when you get presents," Kratos responded. " Don't you have a birthday?"

" I don't know, I never got presents," Yuan told him, and Kratos looked shocked.

" I know," Kratos said after a brief moment of silence. " We can share a birthday! I'll get you a present after school tomorrow."

" Really? Well, then shouldn't I get you something?" Yuan said, he'd never received a present before.

" I guess… I'll give you some money and you can pick something out for me, since you don't have any money," Kratos smiled at Yuan, and turned of the light.

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The next day Kratos received many presents before they even left in the morning. So Kratos was slightly distracted as Yuan left him at school. Kratos entered the schoolhouse playing a handheld game, and only absent mindedly waved at Yuan. Yuan than headed into the town to pick out a present for his friend.

Kratos's birthday was going quite well. Everyone in school was being rather nice to him, while he knew it was because he was rich, he didn't care. At lunch he discovered Yuan had packed a lunch entirely comprised of desserts, and he smiled. However, it was at this time that things took a turn for the worse.

" Hey, teacher look outside," One child shouted and in a single movement all the children went to the windows.

" Children get back to your seats," The teacher demanded.

" Aw, but they've caught some runaways," Someone whined, and the teacher joined them at the window. Kratos peered out the window with the rest of the students. Outside a small mob had formed, and in the middle were a few half-elves. There was a woman with two small children clinging to her skirts, a man stood beside her with hand on her shoulder. These four looked dirty with travel but there were two other slaves who seemed more innocent. An old, frightened looking man, and Yuan.

" Oh, no," Kratos said under his breath. It was not rare for innocent slaves to get sucked into things like this. Once a mob formed the humans often got carried away. One of the half-elf children began to cry and someone hit them. The half-elf man made a movement, but he was knocked down.

" Man, are you lucky, Kratos! Your gonna get to see a hanging on your birthday, just you wait," One of the students. They were all moving towards the door to get a closer look. Kratos just froze. When the door was swung open the sounds of the mob reached his ears, spurred into movement Kratos ran towards the door.

" So you thought you could get away, eh?" One human said moving closer to the half-elf man.

" Please, don't hurt my family. You can take me but please leave them alone," The half-elf pleaded. He moved between the woman and the approaching human. Knocking him aside the human grabbed one of the children and lifted him from the ground.

" Please, he's only a child! Don't hurt him! Please I'm begging, please!" The half-elf fell to his knees and grabbed the human's shirt.

" Don't touch me, you bastard," Dropping the child to the ground the human punched the half-elf. With anger burning in his eyes the father lunged at his attacker. The children began to bawl and the mob moved in to join the fight. Sensing danger the old man became frantic.

" I didn't escape! I didn't do anything! It's them blame them. I did nothing! I did nothing," the old man shouted as he was knocked about by the mob.

" You coward! How can you abandon them, they're our brethren!" Kratos stared, it was Yuan who had spoken. He was fighting back against the humans, even though he had done nothing. The old man looked ashamed, and added his own feeble strength to the families cause. As the fight grew progressively more violent the students began to cheer, the teacher stopped them from fighting, but made no effort to turn them back inside. The old man fell to the ground smacking his head against the hard ground.

Kratos gasped, his peers cheered. Frantically Kratos broke from the crowd and headed for the fight. Maneuvering as best he could through the crowd, Kratos made his way to Yuan. Yuan was still holding his own in the fight. But Kratos caught his wrist and pulled him from the crowd. In shock Yuan let himself be pulled along. Kratos kept running until they were out of town.

" Kratos, we've gotta go back," Yuan cried as soon as he caught his breath.

" What? Are you crazy, we'll get killed!" Kratos shouted back.

" You've gotta stop them. Those people we'll be killed. I'm pretty sure the old guys already dead!" Yuan said frantically.

" Well, they did run away…" Kratos responded.

" What!" Said Yuan, his eyes flashed dangerously.

" There's nothing we can do! We're just kids, Yuan!" Kratos cried desperately.

" Kratos, you've got money, influence. You can stop them!" Yuan shouted back.

" We're not going back!" Kratos yelled frantically. He and Yuan locked eyes, each trying to persuade the other.

" I'm going back!" Yuan said, turning away.

" No your not!" Kratos threw himself in front of Yuan, blocking him.

" Move!" Yuan yelled.

" No!" Kratos shouted back. Yuan went forward, trying to knock Kratos aside. Desperately Kratos tackled him. Viciously the two fought. Tearing at one another, punching, and shouting. The two friends fought until they could fight no more. They lay exhausted on the deserted road in silence. Eventually Yuan staggered to his feet.

" Their probably dead by now anyway. I hope you know that Kratos, you killed those two little kids. You and all those damn humans," Yuan said glaring at Kratos in distaste. Kratos glared right back, and in silence they staggered home. Once there his mother asked no questions. She knew there had been a fight in town, and only asked if Kratos wanted to go see the dead slaves hanging in the town. Kratos shook his head and he and Yuan continued there silent trek to the bedroom. For the rest of the night they didn't speak, they lay down to sleep with a heavy silence still hanging over them. The violent silence persisted until Kratos fell asleep.

" Stupid bastard," Yuan mumbled to himself. But then became sad. He rolled over and felt something hard knock against him. From his shirt Yuan pulled out a now very battered book. He stared at it for awhile and then got up.

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When Kratos woke up the next morning he found it hurt to move. He rolled over to look at Yuan, only to discover he wasn't there. On Yuan's bed lay a book and a note. Slowly Kratos got up and went over to the bed. He picked up the note and read it.

Kratos,

I am sorry. I shood not have been so hard on you. You have enuff trubble sticking up for yore self I shood not have expektd you to stick up for others. Here is yore present. It got a little beet up in are fight. But you fout very good. Im proud!

Frm Yuan

Kratos smiled and hurried downstairs, still in his pajamas. He rushed from the house and into the woods. He hurried down into the hole, and just as he expected, there was Yuan.

" I'm sorry Kratos…" He said sadly, " You were just trying to protect me. I ruined your birthday." Yuan looked up at Kratos, there were tears in his eyes.

"Don't be sorry Yuan. I'm just glad your okay. You wrote a very good letter! I'm proud of you too!" Kratos sat down beside his friend and smiled at him. Yuan smiled back.

" I never got you a present though..." Kratos said after a moment.

" Aw, Kratos I don't care," Yuan said smiling at him, " Let's just say you rescuing me was my present."

" Did I really rescue you?" Kratos said happily.

" Sure, now come on, I think you're gonna be late for school," Yuan told him, and together they left, at peace once again.

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The end of this chapter. In response to the inquiry on the name Hestia. Yes, I stole from Greek mythology. I am not studying Greek mythology in school, but I'm in class and Latin club so we get random mythology all the time. I decided to steal the name because, according to wikipedia ( you decide how much to trust them), both Kratos and Zelos are names of obscure Greek gods. All sorts of things in TOS are stolen from mythology, so hey why not?