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.