Welcome to Gaia! ::

Woot! First chappy of meh fan fic! The idea of having a mask-maker was taken from Stayka's "The Hephaesta" story. (Read it, it's flippin awesome...) Whoooo, have fun reading it! *might edit the whole Lynx knight bit* Annnyways, I'll update the fic if I get some feedback, positive shtuffs, not negative...Oh, and this thing gets a whole lot better as it progresses, trust me! *has great twists planned* Enjoy! x33

“Forsaken Destiny”

Chapter 1 – The Ceremony

“You can’t make me go!” the six-year old Zakuro shouted as she was being dragged onto the airplane headed for Greece.

Her captor, the Silver Lynx Knight Kyra, rolled her eyes behind her white mask. She had been sent on a mission by the master of the Sanctuary to pick up a spirited girl in Australia named Zakuro. She had, had to corner and capture the five year old, which had been no easy task at all. The little girl knew all the back alleys and passages that there were in Sydney.

“You’re going, unless you want me to scar that pretty little face of yours,” Kyra hissed at Zakuro as they boarded the plane.

Zakuro clamped her mouth shut, but was still sulking during the entire plane ride. Kyra looked over and saw Zakuro sulking, and did her best to cheer her up.

“Hey, don’t worry, you’ll be fine. Really, all we’re going to do is get you a mask, assign you a teacher, and have you train,” she said.

Zakuro shrugged. “Why do you have to wear the masks?”

“I’m a servant of the goddess Athena, and a female at that. For thousands of years, Athena has defended the earth from the schemes of the other gods. She had a group of young men who fought for her using only their bodies. Eventually, young women began to wish to join her ranks. At the beginning of this, she refused, because of the Amazon warriors, who were fathered by Aries, one of the gods whom she dislikes most. As time passed, the number of women who wished to be allowed to fight for the goddess increased. Eventually, Athena allowed them to join, but under one condition. The women who were fighting for her had to hide their faces behind masks. In other words, they had to sacrifice their feminity for the goddess. From then on, every female fighter has had to wear a mask,” Kyra explained to Zakuro.

“So, I’m gonna have to wear a mask?” the young girl asked.

Kyra nodded and sighed. “Not only that, but you’ll lose your memories from before you received your mask. And, as painful as this may be, if any male were to see behind your mask, you’ll either have to kill him or love him.”

“Eh,” Zakuro started, shrugging, “I’d rather lose my past memories than keep them. I’m not sure about the killing or loving thing. I’ll probably go with kill, even if he’s on of my best friends; not that I have any friends, to be honest. I scare people away.”

“Then, you should have no problem killing the man,” Kyra replied.

Zakuro looked up at Kyra with her big, light brown eyes. “Would I have to kill him during training if he saw my face? When I’m not even a knight yet?”

Kyra shrugged. “I wouldn’t know, it’s never happened, from what I know. My guess is no. But, there still would be consequences if you were seen without your mask, by your master...”

“Like what?”

“Well, a female saint would soon rather be seen naked than without her mask, so...you’d have to run stark naked to Athena’s statue back to where you started,” the Lynx knight explained.

Zakuro’s face paled slightly. She may be only six, but she knew how embarrassing it would be to be seen clothes-less, and figured that being seen without a mask would be ten times worse for a female saint.

Kyra noticed the look on Zakuro’s face and decided to change the subject.

“Why do you hate your past so much?” she asked, “I mean, you don’t look like you’ve lived all that long...”

“I’m six! That’s a lot of time to live!”

Kyra had to resist laughing uncontrollably at the little girl’s answer.

“Well, I’m fifteen, and even fifteen years isn’t a long time to live. But, given my rank amongst the saints of Athena, I must be willing to die for her at any given moment,” she said.

“Wow,” Zakuro said, before nodding off.

Kyra took a blanket from the seat pocket in front of her and put it over Zakuro before falling asleep for herself.

The rest of the airplane ride was spent sleeping, for the two girls.

Zakuro was a light brown eyed little girl with reddish-brown hair. She often claimed that it was brown, but you could see that it had more red in it than brown. She had a thick Australian accent and had peach-colored skin. She was wearing ratty old tennis shoes and a thread-bare sweatshirt with a torn up and dirty pair of jeans. Her hair fell around the length of her shoulders. Zakuro was about four feet two tall and weighed around 57 pounds. She had a strong and hard-headed spirit, that wasn’t easily broken, and was almost immune to about five on the pain scale. It wasn’t that she couldn’t feel the pain, but it usually didn’t feel like more than someone was pinching her. Not only was she almost immune to pain, but she liked to torture others, mentally, by making them not sure of who they are or if what they’re doing is right or not. She also had a knack for making them spill their worst fears, so that if they were to ever pick a fight with her again, she could make them turn and run for their lives. This made her pretty uncaring towards others.

Kyra had bright green eyes hidden behind her mask as well as pure black hair that reached her waist. She was wearing a blue cloak over her training outfit. She was around five foot nine and weighed 125 pounds, most of that consisting of muscle and bone mass. Her personality was very different from Zakuro’s. She was kind and caring, and didn’t care much for toying with others’ minds. She wasn’t all that immune to pain, but she wouldn’t show that she was in pain. Kyra fought like any other male when she was forced to, but tended to use only blocks when sparring with someone, and tried not to use the powers of her cosmos if possible.

Once the plane was close to landing in Athens, Kyra woke up and looked over at Zakuro, who was still asleep. She decided to allow the younger on to remain sleeping until they got to the Sanctuary, where Zakuro would then be stripped of her name and past, and given a new name. She wouldn’t forget her past immediately, it would be gradual, like it would become less and less real, like a dream, and put in more of a haze, until she didn’t remember anything at all. If Zakuro ever did want to know about her past, Kyra would be able to tell her, because she had gotten all of the information about the young girl from the master of the Sanctuary. Not only had she gotten input on her past, but a bit on some cautions for the future with the girl. There was a rumor going around that Hades and his specters would be set loose again. Of course, they would be defeated, Kyra was certain about that, but then there was Persephone to worry about. The warning that she had been given, was about having to deal with Persephone in the future. Zakuro might end up being the host body for the goddess, and then used as one of her soldiers. This wasn’t entirely certain, though, so, for now, they would just watch to see how quickly her power grows.

Once they had landed, Kyra unbuckled Zakuro, and herself, and put her on her back, so that she could remain sleeping as she walked through the streets of Greece. It was a relatively long walk to the Parthenon, where she would then wake Zakuro up, and teleport to the Sanctuary. Since Kyra wasn’t used to walking for so long, she could feel the muscles that she hadn’t used for a while. Once they’d reached their destination, Kyra set Zakuro on the ground.

“Zakuro, wake up, we’re already at the Parthenon...” Kyra said, shaking the young girl awake, gently.

Zakuro woke up and stretched her arms and legs, then returned to her previous position. She looked around and saw the ruins of the ancient temple of Athena.

“Wow,” she said, “It’s big. Well, sort of. It would have been big, if it wasn’t all crumbly and such.”

Kyra chuckled slightly and helped Zakuro up onto her feet.

“So, where are we going now?” Zakuro asked.

Kyra looked down at the six-year old and said, “I’m teleporting us both to the Sanctuary.”

Zakuro blinked, and as she did so, she found that both Kyra and she were moving at a rapid pace towards another destination. Just as quickly as she had blinked, they were standing amongst a group of 9 other girls, all around Zakuro’s age. She looked around and looked up, searching for Kyra, who was at the front of the crowd, talking to a strong lady, also wearing a mask. Zakuro looked at the other lady in the mask, over the crowd, and saw that she was much stronger than any of the other females that stood around. The lady turned to face the group of girls, and seemed to have lingered on Zakuro slightly longer than any of the others. Finally, she spoke.

“Welcome to Sanctuary, girls. I am the mask-worker for Athena, Elli. Each of you will go through a ceremony to get your masks. I’m certain that when the Silver Lynx knight, Kyra, brought you here, she explained to you about why we must wear masks, even out of the service of Athena, to show that we have actually served under her,” she said, “And the consequences if you’re seen without your mask, except when eating or bathing, and what you must do to any man who sees your face.”

The girls remained silent, but a few nodded their heads confirming the question.

“Many of you will not survive the training you must under-go, but those of you who do, will gain the honor of becoming a saint of Athena. Now, line up in a straight line, and I will fashion your masks for you.”

The girls made the line, with Zakuro in back. She could see how Elli fashioned the hot metal for the masks to fit around their faces. She took the girl’s, which the mask was for, wrist and slit it with a knife. The girl winced in pain as the blade cut into her flesh. Next, the mask-worker took a brush, and dabbed it in the blood, preventing it from clotting immediately, and used the blood to paint a design of sorts on the still-hot mask. The blood immediately dried up and turned black, leaving a permanent design. She then dipped the mask into cool water, solidifying it entirely. Next, she bound the girl’s wrist with a cloth, to help the bleeding to stop, and placed the mask on the girl’s face.

“This mask is a sign of your service under Athena, and with it, you shall be cleansed of your name and past, and shall start anew. Your name will now be Amynta, meaning ‘defender’.”

She did this with all the other girls, Apollonia “destroyer”, Astraia “star”, Berenike “bringer of victory, Chara “happiness”, Desma “vow”, Eirene “peace”, Eleftheria “the liberator”, and Hekate “far-off”.

Finally, she got to Zakuro, and went through the same process. When they got to the name, however, she was in for a bit of a shock. Instead of getting one of the other names, which had something to do with being in the service of Athena, hers didn’t.

Elli looked at Zakuro, and although she couldn’t see her eyes, she could feel their cold glare, boring into her soul. Elli spoke, “Your name will now be Keres, meaning ‘evil spirits’.”

The former Zakuro, Keres, blinked behind her mask and heard a gasp shoot through the other girls, she would have glared at them, but they wouldn’t be able to see it. She wrenched her hand away from Elli, and walked back to the other girls, who immediately parted. Keres shrugged off the glances that she was receiving from the other girls, and focused on her mask. It was a perfect fit; she could easily blink, breathe, see, and move her mouth around. When she got the chance, she would look and see the design on it again, and she would also ask Kyra what all the mask could do, if anything.

As the girls left to go get their training clothes, Keres could hear them whispering to each other about her and starting up rumors about why she had gotten the name she did.

Kyra was the one who was leading the girls to where they would change, and spotted Keres at the back when she turned to make sure that the girls were following her. She sensed anger building up within her, but could do nothing about it at that moment.

Once they had reached the “changing station” Kyra began to hand out their clothes. Five girls got one color of clothes; five got the other, dividing each into teams of sorts, who would be shooting for the same cloth. Keres was in the group that had teal shirts, light blue sashes, navy pants, dark green knee pads, and dark green ballerina-like shoes. The shoes had a ribbon of sorts that wound around the calf, and the shoe part of it covered the entire foot, and had a slight heel at the back of it.

Next, the girls divided into the groups of five each. Kyra took the group that Keres was in, the group that would be competing against each other to gain the silver cloth of the Vulpecula constellation. The other five girls were competing for the silver cloth of the Lupus constellation. They all would start their training the next day, but for the rest of the day, they would be able to explore the rest of the Sanctuary training grounds.

Nother update. x33

Chapter 3 – Day One

Keres struggled to her feet after she landed on the ground after being thrown against a tree by one of her ‘comrades’. She had been picked on all day, without mercy. Kyra had done nothing to stop it, clearly because it was meant to be part of her training.

As she stood up, Keres got hit with a blow to her stomach, but refused to go down that time. Instead, she grasped the knee of the girl and thrust her to the ground. She was sweaty, and bleeding, but the one thing that kept her going, was the fact that she wanted to prove herself to be strong. Most of what Keres had been through was ridicule from people whom she’d fought in the past. They called her weak. They called her a worthless piece of nothing. They told her that because she was young and a female that she couldn’t ever amount to anything. Here, she would prove them wrong; she would prove them all wrong.

“You think that little movement will keep me down?” the girl shot at Keres.

Her name was Desma, “vow”. Desma wore the same clothes that Keres did, except for the mask. Her hair was about waist-length, without bangs, and such a deep blue that it was almost black. From what Keres had seen, she was a jerk, a bossy, two-faced jerk.

“No...But I think that this will...” Keres shot back as she brought her left fist back and thrust it into the girl’s ribs, bruising, if not cracking, one or two of them.

Desma yelped in pain as she felt her ribs get hit.

“And you call me weak...” Keres scoffed, walking away from the training area.

“Where do you think you’re going? This isn’t over yet, evil spirit!!” Desma shouted at Keres’ back.

Keres kneeled down onto the ground and picked up a small pebble. Without warning, she whipped around and threw it with all her might at the back of Desma’s head, smirking as she watched her get hit.

“It’s far from over, Desma! And never turn your back on me after yelling out a comment like that!” Keres shouted, heading back in the opposite direction.

Kyra raised an eyebrow at Keres. She was so young, yet she had this much strength...there were signs that she would certainly have to watch for, especially if this was truly the incarnate of Persephone’s top warrior and temporary host. Her mission was to try and get her to be loyal, fully loyal, to Athena, and if that didn’t work, to work her to the death. Keres seemed like a great girl, but Kyra’s mission came first. Hopefully, this was the wrong girl. If she was the right one, however, the likely hoods of changing her destiny were slim, and the girl would have to change it herself, or with the help of Athena, if at all.

Keres began to kick some rocks as she walked away from the training ground. Where was that Milo kid when she needed someone to beat up? He seemed like an easy target...of course, he did say that he was training for the gold cloth of the Scorpio, and she didn’t have a clue how strong he’d be, or what powers he might have. Heck, she didn’t even know where he was training, whether it was in Sanctuary or nearby. Well, she would look around for him until she found him. After all, she needed a break from her training, and didn’t care what her master said about it.

After a good hour and a half of searching for the blue-haired boy, Keres came upon Saga.

He blinked at seeing the young girl so far from where she was supposed to be training.

“Keres? What are you doing so far from your training?” he asked.

“Looking for that Milo kid. I need to hurt something or someone.”

“But, you should be training with the rest of your team.”

“It doesn’t matter whether I am or not. They hate me, I hate them. Sides, I could beat any one of them in a head-on match.”

“There’s more to being a saint of Athena than just brute strength, Keres. You have to know where your loyalties lie, the weak points of the body, the advantages you female saints have over us men with those masks of yours,” he said, kneeling down to her level, “Not only that, but you need to awaken your cosmos, or your sixth sense. Once you get to that point, you can go on to awaken your seventh sense, the true essence of the cosmos. What Milo is doing today, is testing for the gold cloth of the Scorpio. He has to prove to his master that he has fully awakened his cosmos, as well as the seventh sense. After he’s tested, and hopefully passed, you’ll see him around Sanctuary much more. Now, how about you go back and train some more. I’ll walk you over there, but only as far as I can go. Where you train is set aside for female trainees only.”

Keres nodded and began walking alongside Saga when she spoke up again.

“Uh, Mr. Saga?” she asked.

“Yes?” he responded.

“What’s your cloth?”

“I’m the gold saint of Gemini.”

“Oh...do you have a twin or a split personality or anything? I mean, it’d make sense...”

Saga nodded, with a sad look in his eyes and said, “Yes. Both, actually. My twin, Kanon, probably despises Athena as much as her enemies do. And, I beg of you not to tell anyone, but I do indeed have a very split personality. I can’t control my evil half at times.”

Keres blinked behind her mask.

“Do I have an evil half too?”

Saga smiled and ruffled her hair.

“I hope you don’t. Having a very conflicting personality can be rather depressing at times because they’re both so strong, and there’s always a battle going on within you,” he explained.

Keres shrugged, “Well, I’m a Gemini and I was just wondering if I had the same things...I know I don’t have a twin.”

“Keres, for your sake, I pray that you don’t have a conflicting personality, nor that you end up developing one. That would hurt you and anyone around you whom you hold close to you. I must now leave you to continue on the way to your training grounds, this is as far as I can go. If you have any questions, I’ll be here to talk to. Good bye!”

After Saga walked off, Keres continued on her way to her training grounds. Silently, she made a promise to herself to not tell anyone about Saga’s personality; it wasn’t her place to speak. As she reached the site, she saw Kyra stand up from talking to the other girls and begin to walk over her.

“Where have you been, Keres?” she asked, sternly.

“No where,” the little girl muttered, kicking at a rock.

Kyra walked closer to Keres brought her fist back, and punched Keres in the solar plexus.

Keres coughed, and choked up a bit of blood, which dribbled down her chin, and out of the bottom of her mask.

“Never defy me again, do you hear me?” Kyra shouted, “And do not ditch your training again! Unless, that is, you don’t wish to gain the silver cloth of the Vulpecula.”

Keres was about ready to fight back, when she remembered Saga’s talk with her earlier about gaining her cosmos and that being a saint. She unclenched her fists and come up out of her fighting position. Keres said nothing, but said nothing and walked over to the tree that the other girls in her group were sitting under.

Kyra smiled. Saga told her through their cosmos that he’d talked with Keres earlier, and told her to test her and find out if it had began to sink in or not. Clearly, it had. She told Saga a quick thanks and walked back over to the girls.

The rest of the day was spent fighting using hand to hand combat and talking about the essence of the cosmos and how it was to be used. By the end of the day, Keres was free to do as she pleased, and decided to take a walk, again. Finally, she ran into Milo, who was carrying a box of sorts on his back. He looked rather tired.

“You look half-dead...” she said, noticing his face.

Milo smiled half way. “Well, after you’ve spent an entire day testing for your cloth, that happens,” he said, sitting down on the ground, “How was your first day of training?”

“Not bad,” Keres began, “I got ticked at the beginning and went to look for you because I needed something to hurt, when I ran into Saga. I like him, he’s nice. We talked, and I went back to training. I’m pretty tired right now.”

“Well, you’d probably better get some sleep, then. I’ll talk to you later, Keres! If you’ve got some time tomorrow, you can come look at the Scorpio temple. It’s kind of cool! Bye!” Milo said, before heading off in the direction of the temples.

Keres waved and headed back to where she was staying, completely blowing off the blue-haired boy’s request for her to visit his new temple, and falling asleep as soon as she got into bed.