Author's Notes: I'm changing up the POV a little bit in this chapter. Fang is a fun staple but Zelos might be more over-powering in the next few chapters due to his knowledge on certain subjects. However, everything is subjective to my mood when I write the chapters. I'm going to answer a question in this note. Somebody asked if Max will show up at all in this story. Right now? I'm not planning on having her in it. This is mainly a Fang and Zelos fic centering around them. Just them, not Fang's relationship with Max or Zelos's relationship with Sheena. I don't even know how I would begin to have Max get involved with this story because of Fang leaving at the end of his self-titled novel. Not to mention the fact Fang's not even on Earth anymore. Everything is subject to change however. I also don't plan on adding any TOS characters either (mostly because everybody's dead but Kratos). … Okay, here's a rather lengthy update to the story! (Training is almost done with. I think the next chapter will be dedicated to wrapping it up and then from there on out will be the rising actions to lead to our climax of Fang and Zelos slaying the big bad Jabberwocky!)

It was impressive to say the least that Fang was doing so well. To watch the initially sloppy swipes turn into swiftly executed slices that cut through the air quickly and efficiently had been pleasantly surprising for Zelos to see.

Strike after strike at the wood Zelos was throwing at the teenager could be heard at the abbey. The lumber clattered to the ground and Fang cut everything Zelos threw at him in half without much problem.

Yeah, Zelos was kinda impressed.

The redhead brushed his hair out of his face, looking at Fang who slipped his sword into it's sheath in a silent 'I'm awesome at everything' manner that reminded the Tethe'allan of a seraphim he had known years ago.

Too bad Kratos had gone off on into space. The chosen would have liked a little more help than the amateur swordsman.

Now, don't get him wrong, Zelos hadn't been nearly that skilled on his 14th day of handling a sword. However, Fang only knew how to fight hand-to-hand and do the basic self-defense with that sword. Yeah, he was really good at what he did know, but knowing how to break some assaulters nose wouldn't help while trying to kill a dragon.

Fang stretched and a cocky smile came upon his lips, "We done already?"

"Throw back the wood. We'll practice with the smaller targets," Zelos waved his hand in the air lazily as he thought to himself.

Fang didn't have to be the top samurai around. He didn't need to be a summoner or even an axe wielding freak-lumberjack. Fang needed to be one thing in the fight with the dragon. That thing was not the hero.

He needed to be a distraction.

The avian-hybrid seemed to think he'd be delivering the final blow to the dragon as the days progressed. Maybe that had been Zelos's fault for putting so much emphasis on getting his help. If Fang knew some of the things Zelos could do in battle with adrenaline pumping and instinct at the forefront of his mind? Well, Fang wouldn't be nearly as smug about his abilities to cut a few sticks in half.

Zelos picked up the wood that had fallen to his feet, juggling it in his hands as he grinned over at Fang, "Can you cut it while I juggle?" he taunted.

Zelos could do it, if Fang ever wanted to see it done.

The teenager rolled his eyes, "I wouldn't want to damage your face any more than it already is." The reply was mocking. Nobody could use a sword like that. To Fang? It wasn't some agile weapon. It was bulky because the way he used it felt bulky.

That was the main reason Zelos would be using Fang as a distraction in the battle.

"Puss," Zelos simpered before chunking the half-cut logs at Fang. The teenager drew his sword fast and cut the logs in quarter pieces now.

In the time it took to get five cuts in? Zelos could have tripled it and made kindling out of the wood. Maybe even skin the bark off of it.

That might be a little far fetched. He wasn't sure his dagger's blade was sharp enough to remove the bark anymore.

"Are you ever going to spar with me?" Fang had lifted his voice to inquire.

The ex-playboy blinked his eyes, forgetting he was in the middle of training the mutant. It took about a second to regain his composure. Fang, just like everybody else he'd ever known, hadn't caught his slip-up.

"You're not ready to spar with me," he laughed.

"Chopping up our camp-fire wood is not going to get me ready to slay the Jabberwocky." Zelos could almost see the childish young boy pouting 30 feet away from him.

"First of all? It's a dragon," Zelos scoffed, "Secondly, you've been using the word 'me' a lot. Do you really think I'm not going to be there to help you?" He began waltzing over to the teenager, looking at him with bright blue eyes expectantly.

He hated having to crane his neck up to make eye contact with somebody so naïve as Fang. It wasn't as though Zelos thought height equated to anything that made the bird-kid better than him, but there was just something demeaning about having to look up so much just to make fucking eye contact. It made him feel a little less in-control.

At least Zelos knew the view sucked from Fang's point of view.

"What is the plan?" Fang inquired, purposely letting the blade of the sword make a ssshhhhhink! noise as he sheathed it nice and slow. What a little dramatic bastard.

"The plan is that we kill the dragon," Zelos scowled, picking the wood up in his arms now so he could throw it in their woodpile.

"No kidding? I thought we were gonna domesticate it," came the sarcastic comment over Zelos's shoulder.

He would be irritated with the sarcasm if it weren't for the fact that Zelos was pretty sure Fang had grown to doing that because of his influence…

"You're not ready to fight it," Zelos cocked his hip out slightly to rest the wood he hadn't yet placed in the pile lightly against his pelvis. He blew a strand of hair out of his face before lifting his gaze confidently upward at Fang. "So don't even think about fighting it."

"When am I going to be ready?" Fang demanded.

"When you don't suck as fucking hard," Zelos found himself snapping. His temper fuse was a lot shorter than it used to be. He turned away from Fang and began placing the wood on the pile. Fang was silent for a long moment.

"How long were you isolated in that prison, Zelos?"

Oh, great. Psychiatric help. Whoohoo.

"I didn't have the liberty of having my day planner plastered on the wall, so I'm not quite sure," Zelos replied.

"An estimation?"

"Too long."

Fang grew quiet and he walked over to Zelos, beginning to straighten the pile of wood for him helpfully.

"Were you the only one in there until I got thrown in?" the teenager tilted his head slightly towards Zelos in curiosity.

"Yeah," Zelos murmured in a distracted manner as he thought about something a little more relevant. Like what kind of rabbit-centered dish they should have for dinner. Rabbit stew sounded good. Rabbit soup? Rabbit steak, perhaps. He wished he could make tequila out of rabbit. That's what he really wanted. Some good old-fashioned tequila squeezed straight out of the veins of a rabbit. Just like Grandma used to make!

"You ever get lonely?" Fang was still talking.

"All my friends are dead. Who did I have to miss?" Zelos rolled his eyes.

"None of my friends know where I am," Fang confessed.

Zelos glanced at him to gage the boy's facial expression. Fang was serious and a little reserved. His eyebrows were pulled together and his jaw was tight from emotional discomfort. This was him putting trust in Zelos. This was Fang showing his chaperone that he wanted to be friends. Or at least a fighting companion that he could trust.

You had to invest something in order to receive payment in return. To get Zelos to trust him, he'd need to place a part of him out on display.

The fact Fang was an outcast didn't surprise Zelos for some reason.

"You don't say?" was his decided response to Fang's confession. He was no priest, after all.

"Well, I left them. It was for the best," Fang continued, despite the hints from Zelos that he didn't want this trust. Too much trust always led to bad things.

"Hmmm." Zelos poked a piece of wood into a tighter position as he listened to Fang.

"They can get along just fine without me. So I started wandering around Earth. They don't know how to contact me- I like it like that," Fang walked away from Zelos back to the wood he had cut up and he came back with an arm full, placing it on their pile. "Then I fell into this hole in a tree and I ended up here. To them? I might as well be on Earth. I abandoned them all the same."

Zelos barked a laugh suddenly and Fang turned, staring at him in shock of that reaction.

"What's so funny?" Fang snarled.

"You think that's abandonment! Oh, the joys of being a kid who doesn't know any better," Zelos snickered at him, shaking his head. He crossed his arms and leaned back, his butt was resting on the wood. One leg came up lazily so he could rest his arms on his knee and Zelos showed Fang a big Cheshire grin.

"You're just too cute sometimes. Being all emotional when you haven't done shit that even deserves any of your brooding," the redhead added.

"I'm an avian-hybrid. AKA a bird kid," Fang hissed, crossing his arms over his chest now. "I can't think of a lot of good things that have happened to me in my life time."

"I obviously need to readopt the nickname 'whiney bitch' for you," Zelos decided.

"You don't have so many problems," the teenager blurted.

Zelos cocked his head and smirked up at him in silence. Fang huffed and looked away at a tree as silence entered between the two.

"We'll train tomorrow, like we've been doing for the past couple of weeks," Zelos's voice was unaffected by Fang's accusation. He looked back at the redhead in slight surprise but he wouldn't press it. Sometimes that unpredictability worked to his personal advantage. Whether or not Zelos kept grudges didn't matter because Fang couldn't seem to tell whether Zelos was mad or not after five seconds because then the ex-chosen would flash a smile or he'd just act like he hadn't heard anything at all.

"Okay," Fang sighed.

"Depending on how I think you do tomorrow will decide whether or not we move on to sparring and spells and things of those sorts," Zelos pushed himself lightly off the woodpile and then headed into the abbey.

Fang stood outside for a long time before he looked down at his sword. "Cool. Now I can improve."

Zelos shut the door to the abbey behind him, looked down at his dull dagger, and said, "Fuck. Now I've got to sharpen you. I figured I'd have another damn week before he started bitching at me."