Author's Note: After a pretty messy... 9 months or something, we're joined once again by our other resident writer. Jade. He even managed to write his first chapter out of hiatus before I finished mine. How do you feel about being back in FF Jade?

Jade: Fingers hurt. Was breaking in a new keyboard when I wrote this. But good to be back, hopefully won't be another 9 months or so before I post something again. But you know, on my own account.

Indeed. And, if I get my chapter done in this milenia, we can get to the collab chapter too.

Jade: Think you can not have us wait a millennia? Would like to read it in this life. Think if I go back about 4 chapters you promised the next chapter to be the one you're writing.

Moviiiiiiiiiiiing on.

An Unfinished Scrapbook

The Eighth Picture

Crouching Tiger at Dragon's Neck

Part 1: The Disciplinary Committee

Walking the halls of the Branford Academy, Ceres headed directly towards her "club's" room. Back when she originally enrolled at the school she hadn't had any plans to join a group. Ever trying to please her mother though, Ceres had reluctantly agreed to try and find one once she had reached the seventh grade. Much to Luna's disappointment, the group that Ceres had found didn't actually spend much time together. With a school as big as the Academy, they simply couldn't hope that the teachers would be able to keep all the students in line and rather than outsource a security detail to some random group of people, they put that duty in the hands of the students themselves, thus the Disciplinary Committee had been formed. Headed by one of the teachers, getting picked for the Committee was relatively viewed as a good thing as it meant that the adults had faith in your character, and combat strength.

At age 13 Ceres had joined, while not the youngest member, she had come close to that title. Her obvious obsession with the rules had netted her a spot, but what had helped was her combat abilities. She wasn't exactly the strongest of mages out there and at only 13 she was lacking a little in terms of physical strength as well. Not to say that Ceres was weak, just that she had clear room for improvement. The skill that had caught the eyes of the teacher in charge was her ability to cancel out a foe's magic. In a world where mages were a bit more commonplace than normal, this was a useful ability to have. It wasn't something that Ceres had been born with, but something that she had learned as soon as she had been able to pick up a knife.

Now a full year later since joining Ceres still hadn't made much in the way of friends as her mother had hoped. She had sparring partners sure, but not really any that she'd go and hang out with outside of Committee work. Today though she was to patrol the halls with one of the senior members, Elayna, who looked every bit like her mother. She had the same dirty blonde hair color and even put a red headband in it. Despite being three years older than Ceres, the two girls were able to look each other in the eye. Wasn't so much that Elayna was extremely short, she was actually pretty average for a girl of her age. It was just that Ceres had fully inherited her parents her height and was taller than even some of the guys in her class. The big difference between Elayna and her mother was that she had blue eyes. Being the daughter of the famous Warrior of Light and obviously following in his footsteps for upholding justice, it was no shocker that Elayna had been appointed as soon as the school felt she was able.

Reaching the door to the base of operations Ceres strode in and headed to her locker. Inside was nothing more than a small blue crystal that held a single spell inside of it. Having asked her father for help, she had gotten the crystal to help her craft a blade made of pure ice as only the most trusted were allowed to carry actual weapons around on school grounds. The edges of her ice sword weren't sharp, but it gave her something to use when things got out of control and she needed to defend herself. Waiting patiently at one of the desks for Elayna to arrive Ceres pocketed her crystal and made sure that she was still able to draw from the power inside of it.

"Ceres, sorry to keep you waiting." Elayna hurried into the room and made her way straight to her own locker where she pulled out a simple sword and strapped the scabbard to her waist. "Class ran a bit late today." It was late in the afternoon, school was to be letting out soon, all that was left was homeroom where the students would be making sure they had everything they needed for the day and basically chatting before they headed home or to their club activities.

"That's fine," Ceres stated as she stood up and made sure that the badge on her shoulder was properly displayed so that everyone knew what she was doing out in the halls.

When Elayna was done getting her sword secured they headed out into the halls and made sure that everyone was getting to their homerooms in time. It would only last about fifteen minutes but that didn't stop some kids from trying to get out of it and head home early. Running into two such students as they walked through the school, Ceres and Elayna swiftly sent them back to class. It wasn't until school officially let out that they ran into any real problems. A couple of boys had attempted to show off a group of girls, trying to show off their control of magic. Which of course was more of a lack of control that resulted in part of the school getting set on fire. Elayna took control of the situation, making sure that the offending students got a one way ticket to the Principal's room for setting the school on fire. Meanwhile Ceres used her control of fire magic to get rid of the flames.

Most of what they dealt with was just minor infractions on the school rules, it was rare for them to have to deal with anything like the school catching aflame but it was certainly what kept the job interesting to them. Meanwhile, while they walked around their section of the vast school grounds Elayna attempted to make some small talk with her younger companion.

"How is Gladiolus doing?" she asked knowing full well that in order to get Ceres to talk, her chocobo was the easiest way to do it. Having only ever heard Ceres willing converse when it came to chocobos, it wasn't hard to figure that she had one and it had only been a matter of persistence to find out that name of said flying bird.

"He's doing fine," Ceres commented nonchalantly. While it was the quickest method to getting Ceres to talk, there was no guarantee that she'd say much of anything back. She was a girl of few words.

"Didn't you say that you had gotten him from the Branford stock of chocobos? What made you pick him exactly?" Trying a question that would hopefully get a longer response, Elayna didn't mind that she already knew the answer, she was trying to get her younger classmate to open up just a little bit.

"Yes, he's from their first brood. He was small even back when I picked him. I liked his plumage though, he was such a glossy black." A soft smile crept onto Ceres' face as she remembered her parents taking her over to their neighbors and being led back to the stables to pick out her very own chocobo." All the chicks were just old enough to be given away so he was sitting with his brother and sisters. Of course Tina had already taken Starlight from the group. Gladiolus wasn't anything special from the looks of them other than that he was slightly smaller than the others. But he waddled on over to me while his siblings played and that was what made me pick him, he came over to me rather than play."

"Sounds like it was love at first sight," Elayna joyfully teased.

"I had felt like he picked me, little did I know that Mother had gotten his attention with a krakka root." Before Ceres could go into any further explanation of what had happened back then the sound of flesh hitting stone echo through the hall. Fearing what was going on the two girls broke into a run heading to see just what had caused that noise.

When the got into the next hallway they could see a group of three boys clustered in the corner. Ceres gritted her teeth when she saw the tell tale glint of metal in the hand of the boy in the middle. All three were easily in Elayna's age group judging by their appearance, not one was exactly weak looking either. They had clearly spent their free time in the gym, even remembering to come in for leg day. Extending her hand Ceres called forth a small fireball and sent it rocketing into the air above the heads of the bullies. Grabbing their attention with such a display the two on the edge turned to face the approaching girls and it was easy to tell that they had been waiting for this.

"I see Elayna has graced us with her presence today," the one of the right sneered as wind started to swirl around his hands.

"And she seems to have brought a friend for us to play with," the other smile as droplets of water started to form in the air near him. "You'll pay for getting our pal suspended last week."

At the start of the previous week, there had been a big fight between a couple of students and one in particular had sent a number of others to the hospital due to his use of earth magic during the fight. Elayna had been the one to actually take him down, having first lured him out into an open courtyard before proceeding to beat his ass into the ground. His lackeys had managed to get off with some after school detention and apparently they were skipping out on that as well to get themselves into even more trouble.

"He got himself suspended with his actions," Elayna stated. "And if you guys continue then you'll be joining him. If you leave now I won't report you to any of the teachers. Just leave the student behind you alone and I'll overlook it this time. I rather not get into a fight again." As Elayna spoke the two delinquents started to gather more mana to them and were obviously ready to lash out at any given moment. Ceres had already cause her ice blade to appear in her hand as she moved to stand between Elayna and the bullies.

"I don't think they're going to listen to you Elayna," Ceres' voice was stern as she got into a ready stance. "But they would be wise to."

"Now why would we want to leave?" The one in the center asked while he moved forward to the student that was still trapped. "They beasts think they're so cool with their extra features, they don't know just how much of a stain they are on the world. I'll leave Daughter of Light, but only once I make sure this mutt knows her place. If you have a problem with that, you can try and stop me." The air around the dagger wielding student started to shimmer with the heat of fire magic.

Everyone stood at the ready, Elayna had even started to cast Shell on her and Ceres to minimize the damage as best as she could. Just as Elayna started to open her mouth to try to get them to see sense before breaking out into a fight, the sounds of a person speeding down the hallway could be heard. It came from the same direction that Ceres and Elayna had. A gold flash darted between the two girls and leapt over the three boys to land just in front of the fire user.

"It's alright now! Why? Because I'm here!" A familiar female voice bragged. Ceres felt her blood start to boil when she heard the voice of that golden streak. Further evidence of who it was was left in front of the boys, a small platform formed by the flooring itself having moved upwards was the telltale sign of geomancy. Nimbus Verus stood with pride beaming on her face as she shouted to her fellow dogooders. "There's no need to try and reason with villains. Nothing teaches better than the long arm of justice!" At the word justice, Nimbus proceeded to punch the bully in front of her, sending his unprepared butt to the ground. "Rock Jail!" Nimbus shouted her move like a true cartoon hero as the floor of the school snaked up around the water bully.

"Ken!" The wind user sent blades of wind at his trapped ally to try to break it apart. Ceres had already been running at him though and stood in the way of the magically pressurized air. With a swing of her sword she cut into the magic returning it to mana which her crafted sword then absorbed. "Damned girl, what'd you do?"

Rather than answer verbally, Ceres closed what little distance there was between the two of them and slammed the pommel of her sword into his face. The air around her shuddered with the effects of magic alerting Ceres to his counterattack before it even hit her. Elayna's Shell absorbed most of the attack and what did hit Ceres was barely enough to cause her hair to flutter in the breeze. Dismissing her sword Ceres reached out and grabbed hold of the boy's shoulder, ice starting to cover him. He took a swing at her but Ceres had expected it and already coated her arm in ice to intercept. With the goal to capture in her mind, Ceres stepped hard on his foot and while he was still reeling from the pain, she knocked him down onto the ground. Fast as she could she used the ice on his shoulder to hold him still, having the frost grow to connect to the floor. From there she moved to freeze his arms and legs to the ground, not giving him much of a choice but to lie there and wait.

Elayna had taken down the fire user by the time Ceres had managed to finish her own opponent off. The trapped Ken had managed to escape by using water to cut himself out of the cage but was now lying face first on the ground with a bloody nose courtesy of Nimbus. With all three taken care of Ceres was finally able to spot just who they had surrounded. It was much to her shock that she saw her younger cousin Iris sporting a few cuts as she sat slumped on the floor. Kneeling next to her Ceres was relieved to see Iris' chest rising and falling steadily.

Once certain that her cousin was fine, Ceres turned on Nimbus. The esper-girl was beaming with triumph, knowing that she had done a good deed. Sadly for Nimbus, this wasn't exactly how Ceres had seen it. Making her way over Ceres grabbed a scaly wrist, tightly enough that it snapped the captive out of her victory stupor.

"What gives Ceres?"

"Even if you were trying to help us, it's not your place to get into a fight, you could have hurt Iris with your little stunt." There was a clear anger in the emerald eyes of the half-Lunarian. Her grip on Nimbus tightened as Ceres glared at the girl. "The school only gives the Disciplinary Committee the right to fight on school grounds for a reason, we do get trained to deal with these kind of things, if even only a little. Having you come barreling in like that could ruin what we were trying to do. Elayna was trying to get this taken care of without resorting to violence, something that you seem to have no care for so long as you can punch your way out."

"Common Ceres, I helped out. Iris is fine and we got the bad guys, what more do you need?" Nimbus tried to wrest her hand free but Ceres had a surprisingly strong grip. Strong as Nimbus was, there wasn't going to be a way she could get free without injuring Ceres. "Nice to know I got my own Commissioner though, just goes to show that I'm on my way to becoming a hero." The grin on Nimbus' face did nothing but fuel the anger that Ceres was feeling, she certainly wasn't happy that now she was being mocked. Sensing what was going on Elayna moved between the girls and delivered a well placed blow, causing Ceres to let go of Nimbus to deal with the sudden pain and cause both girls to stagger backwards.

"You both need to settle down." The way she spoke it was clear that there was no room for argument. Ceres looked like she had wanted to say something but bit her tongue, giving in to her senior's advice. "Ceres, it's correct that it's against the rules for Nimbus to have helped us but what you don't seem to get is that there is a bit of grey here. Mat and the others were making their move already, we were going to be fighting even without Nimbus jumping the gun." At the mention of her heroics and the fact that Elayna was taking her side on the matter, Nimbus was beaming. "Having said that," turning an cool stare to Nimbus, "Ceres is right in saying that we have our rules for a reason. While it worked out this time, please do wait until we've actually gotten into a fight before lending any aid. Not that you should be doing that anyways. Ceres, Nimbus and I will make sure that these three get to the principle, you get Iris to the nurse's office."

Nodding her head, and giving Nimbus one final glare, Ceres went and picked up her cousin. While the cuts were superficial, there was no telling if what caused them might have had some other effect. By all rights Iris shouldn't have been passed out from the few cuts she had so Ceres expected that maybe she had gotten sacred enough. With Iris in her arms, Ceres made her way down to the nurse's office.

Now one might have expected a school to have a sparsely stocked office to deal with the small amounts of cuts and such that kids might get into. Given the state of the world and just what this school taught, this was far from the truth. While not outfitted with the most advanced of the technology out there, it was certainly a far cry from the standard expectations of a school nurse's place. Six beds were lined on either side of the wall and already four of the one son the lefthand side were filled. Ceres recognized a few of the faces but couldn't put a name to them, one of them she knew was a girl in her class which made it all the worse that she couldn't remember her name. Setting Iris down on the first unoccupied bed, Ceres looked around for the nurse.

"Where-" Ceres began and was interrupted by the girl whose name she didn't remember.

"She went out, another kid got his leg broken and so she went to go collect him with a wheelchair." The nameless girl was in the room with her arm in a sling and a nasty cut on her opposite shoulder. Ceres was obviously looking at the injuries which prompted the girl to speak. "These? Got them from playing around with Mike." The boy in the next bed with a cut across his chest that'd leave a nasty scar if not properly tended waived. Ceres assumed this to be Mike. "We had wanted to duel without protecting the swords, get a feel for the real thing and well, I lost."

"You should always leave the protections on, they stop these kind of things and don't hinder the sword at all." Confused as to why anyone would want to practice using a real sword when they could easily use magically blunted ones that had no difference from a normal sword aside from the fact they didn't cut. "All you'd accomplish is… well this." Ceres gestured to the two of them. "Even my Mother's school uses blunted blades for practice." Luna had a small swordsmanship school in the town, one that Ceres had been a member of ever since she could hold a wooden sword.

"Yeah but Ceres, you have to admit that when the sword can cut there's a different feel behind it, there was so much more hesitation in my swings that I was shocked."

"And there's a reason for that!" Ceres shouted, "you can easily have killed him just as you had hurt him. That cut on his chest could have been a lot worse. I hope for his sake that you guys go back to blunted blades, that's saying that the club even lets you continue to practice. I'd expect this of someone younger than you." Turning around Ceres stomped over to Iris' bed and took a seat in the chair next to it. While this caused her to face the girl she had just yelled at, Ceres kept her eyes down. Inwardly she was cursing herself for having done that, there was a better way to have gotten that across. No doubt the teacher for the club had already given them a lecture and the nurse, Eiko Carol, had probably done the same. Having another student, one that even practiced the sword, berate them for the same thing was not what they needed right now but it was all that Ceres had thought of, this was the exact reason that she normally kept quiet around others, she ended up saying something that was hurtful or else completely useless to the conversation. Only those instances with Nimbus, and whenever her sister Tina appeared, would she speak.

Once Eiko had come into the room, Ceres gave a brief explanation of what had happened to the red-head before she left the room. Even though her shift wasn't over with Ceres headed right back to the committee's room. Putting the ice magicite back into her locker she left the school and headed towards the school's stables to get Gladiolus.

Gladiolus was an average sized black feathered chocobo. Having named him after her favorite flower, Ceres never once thought that it wasn't a fitting name for a male chocobo even if her brother had questioned it. Par for the course, Ceres had brushed off his questioning, after all what did her brother know about manly names? Still, the chocobo wore it with grace, and when he spotted his partner he kweh'd with joy at seeing her. A grin appeared on Ceres' face once she heard the familiar sound. Rushing over to his stable she reached into her school bag and pulled out a Sylkis Bud, an artichoke-like flower that Ceres found bitter but Gladiolus adored. Feeding him the flower Ceres stroked his feathers and buried her head against his neck.

"How you doing?" another loud 'kweh' was the answer she received as Gladiolus bent his head down to try and reach her bag to find himself another of his favorite treats. "Is that all I'm good for, treats?" Ceres teased as she caught his beak in her hands and pulled him away from her bag. Large black eyes stared unblinking at her before he nuzzled up against her, clearly trying to charm his way into more. "Alright, alright. But only if you can get me home before Ciro and the twins." Ciro's student council work would be ending soon and he'd take the normal route home, via public transit.

"KWEH!" Gladiolus had accepted the challenge and stood completely still, feathers only ruffling in the breeze that blew through the stables, as Ceres got him saddled and ready for flight. Taking her normally loose hair, Ceres quickly pulled it into a ponytail for the duration of her flight, it was aggravating to have her hair whip her face as she flew through the skies.

Once fully ready Gladiolus shook a fair bit to get himself comfortable with the straps before Ceres climbed on. Knowing full well that she'd be riding her companion to and from school and that she wore a skirt, Ceres had opted for the simple fact to wear shorts underneath so she didn't worry in the least that the stable was full of other students, many of them boys, when she hiked herself up and swung her leg over. Fully situated on her saddle, Ceres grabbed the reins and pushed stable door open with a small amount of magic. Gladiolus bolted once the way was clear and made for outside, not caring about the students that were coming in to get their own chocobos. The second he had a clear shot for the sky he lept and started flapping his wings to gain altitude. Ceres let out a small laugh at the enthusiasm of her friend as he flew through the air. Being one of the firstborn of Stardust, he did have a slight advantage in speed compared to the normal chocobo, and by slight advantage, it was all Ceres could do to hold onto him with the speed he was going.

When Ceres reached her house she noticed the glow of two very familiar lights. Standing in the middle of them was her brother, the twin lights being both Min and Nim. Standing next to them was…. Tina and Starlight. Feathers puffed up as Gladiolus spotted his brother and he landed next to the group. A demanding "kweh" left the black chocobo as he settled and let Ceres off. Gladiolus felt the same about Starlight as Ceres did about Tina, but was more of a sibling rivalry than any true animosity between the them. Still, Starlight was on Gladiolus' home turf and he would demand the respect he deserved being the ruling chocobo of the house.

"What's going on?" Ceres asked, her meaning clear as the day.

"I was standing outside waiting for the bus when Tina noticed and offered me a ride. Coming home on Light is faster than taking the bus and I got loads of homework, both from classes and the student council." Ciro reached over and patted the larger chocobo. "It's not like you and Gladiolus can offer, he's only big enough to fit one after all."

Ceres felt betrayed that her brother of all people was taking assistance from her rival. Taking Gladiolus towards the stable she patted his head. "He can't help his size Ciro, he's large for a black chocobo even."

"Ceres," Ciro said as she passed him by but she was having none of it. Fully ignoring her twin Ceres made a beeline for her family's stable, which had been built for her chocobo, and once she got in she started getting the saddle off of him.

"Sis," popping his head into the small stable Ciro looked a little hurt. "What's a matter?"

"You know exactly what's the matter, you rode here with her."

"So I'm supposed to have told her no thanks even though it was highly convenient for me just because you don't like Tina? Which, why don't you two get along, you've been fighting for quite some time now." This was a weekly discussion for the twins, Ciro had never been satisfied with the simple answer that Ceres had given him, but she had never put much thought into the explanation.

"She did something bad Ciro, and I'm not talking about all the things that you cover for her. Until she apologized on her own or fixes the problem she created I'm going to stay mad. The longer it takes, the worse she is in my book." It was quite obvious that Ceres didn't like Tina, as evident by the fact that she was openingly hostile whenever Tina came up in conversation, but while Ceres knew what it was that was driving her mad, she had yet to disclose that information to anyone else. Her parents, well her mother, left it alone since Ceres didn't do anything to Tina other than argue. Ciro on the other, having to deal with Tina and Ceres in the same company, was much more investigative about it.

"You ever going to tell me what? Does she even know what it is that she did?" Obvious questions, and one that Ciro had asked on many occasions.

"No I'm not going to tell you, even if you knew there was nothing that you could do to fix it. Doubt that Tina knows either but it doesn't look like she cares much, rather it just seems to give her a nice reason to pick a fight with me." Having gotten Gladiolus out of his saddle and made sure that his hay was fresh, Ceres pushed past Ciro and headed inside.

Taking the stairs near the backdoor that she had come in, Ceres went straight to her room. Lightly furnished by her own design, the room held mostly just the necessities to be called a bedroom. What showed that it was Ceres' room was the flower pots the lined the top of her dresser and the planter box that hung out the window. Currently the box was empty but each of the pots inside were filled with flowers of different colors, she had even managed to get the Oldrose to bloom multi-colored, a flower that naturally grew yellow, red, and blue all from the same seed. It was something that took time and showed that Ceres was invested in her gardening.

Sitting on her bed was a single letter. Not used to getting any mail delivered to her, let alone dropped in her room, she hurried over and picked it up. The text made it look like a simple piece of junk mail, at least until Ceres had read who it was from. Tearing open the letter upon seeing the name she emptied the contents out into her hands. Her eyes darted over it as she read as fast as she was able to. It was a pass into the Coliseum. Clutching it to her chest, Ceres bolted out of her room and downstairs to her mother.

Luna Adamas was standing in the hall talking into a room, her husband's laboratory, when Ceres came crashing into her. Mother and daughter fell to the ground, Luna was fully ready to shout at the one who had plowed into her when she noticed just who it was. Ceres was not the kind to do this so she was more shocked than angry.

"Ceres?" her shock clear in her voice as well as on her face.

"Mother!" she exclaimed, "the school selected me to be in the upcoming Dragon's Neck Coliseum Tournament." Realization dawned on Luna as she processed the information her little swordswoman gave her.

"That's great Dear." By this time the two had untangled and both stood up. Ceres showed Luna the letter and was positively beaming. Taking it, Luna looked it over a bit more carefully than her daughter had. "Hmm, says that you'll be competing in the 18 and under section. At least they understand that you kids don't need to be fighting people like our neighbors, not that I see them participating really."

"She strong enough?" Sol's voice came from the doorway, he leaned against the frame. While standing at six foot eight, the way he slouched made him look shorted, even if he still appeared taller than his wife. "I think I heard Ciro mentioning that the two older Verus girls will be fighting as well."

"Tina's going to be there?" The normal glare that accompanied her name was replaced by a bright, if not scary, look. "When is it? I think Tina and I are long overdue for a match."

To be continued in;

Part 2: A Long Time Coming