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MULTI_MEDIA_MAN
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Azereiah
BlizzSapphire Rode and Demetra Rode - Family Day - It All Goes Wrong
The Rode sisters starred after Oswald as he wheeled himself down the corridor. "He's kind Sapphire," Demetra said with a look of deep melancholy in her eyes. "But he's so lost and so sad." She turned to look at her older sister. "You should look after him, he's going to need someone."
Sapphire couldn't help but smile. The way Demetra talked and moved Sapphire always thought of her as someone far older than ten. Pain and sorrow did that to a person and no one could experience it more than the girl who felt everyone's pain. Still in that moment she looked just like a ten year old asking her mom to take care of a stray dog. "I'll do what I can."
With those words Sapphire shed the depressing aura that had fallen over the sisters since they'd encountered Oswald. She grabbed Demetra by the hand and started to run with reckless abandon written on her face. "Come on, the race'll be starting soon. It'll my a little late for me to show off my skills but you'll enjoy what everyone else can do. We've got some pretty strange people here."
As they approached the track Sapphire suddenly became aware that something was wrong. Perhaps it was a change in the air, or her sister's aura or maybe she simply felt Demetra's grip change but a moment later the feeling of dread was justified as she felt Demetra's hand fall from her grasp. Sapphire stopped, knowing even before she turned that this was not something benign. She turned just in time to see Demetra's body hit the floor. A strangled cry escaped her lips, like all the air had been squeezed from her lungs in one forceful motion. Sapphire fell to her knees as her sister's side at a loss for what to do. Demetra's muscles began to seize and release in a series of violent convulsions. Her eyelids flickered back and forth but Sapphire could see that she wasn't conscious. The sight was horrible to behold and for once in many years Sapphire didn't know what to do. She wasn't prepared for this, she didn't have a course of action, she didn't have a plan.
In that moment Sapphire did the only thing she could. The only option she had left. She screamed at the top of her lungs. "Help! Somebody help! Help please!" she continued to scream in desperation until her words reached someone at the edge of the gym.
"What's all the..." a boy began to say before seeing Demetra in the midst of a seizure and Sapphire by her side trying to prevent her from hurting herself.
"The nurse!" Sapphire shouted "Get her! Now!"
The boy ran back into the gym as though a demon was on his tail and returned seconds later with the school nurse who'd been overseeing the race in case of injury.
Though it killed her to do it, Sapphire stood back and allowed the nurse to attend to her little sister, repeating over and over again that Demetra was going to be just fine. She was going to be alright.
Farewell to Friend and Foe
For several hours Sapphire sat starring at the wall as the nurse tended to Demetra and several more after, she sat there knowing what must be done. Unwilling to return to her dorm room Sapphire had slept on one of the couches in the hospital wing. Demetra had suffered a grand mal seizure most likely brought on by her semblance. This was the first time it happened but the nurse told her that it was unlikely to be the last. From now on Demetra would need constant care. She'd need someone to watch over her twenty four hours a day and as much as Sapphire loved the rest of her family, her grandparents, her sister, she didn't trust them to be their for Demetra; not in the way she needed. From the moment the nurse told Sapphire her sister's diagnosis one thing became very plain to her, she was leaving school.
Her stomach twisted into knots as she thought of it. It wasn't as if she had the fondest memories of Beacon. Her team's missions had been disastrous, her teammates couldn't stand her and she didn't particularly care for them either but Beacon hadn't been all horrible. She held wonderful memories of Oswald, Diamond and Emerald singing at her Uncle's club, sparring with Geni in Forever Fall to get a handle on her new weapon designs. Beacon was step one on a journey that she wanted very much to complete, a journey that for the moment Sapphire had to put aside. As important as school was to her, there were things more important.
During first period that day Sapphire returned to her dorm and started to pack. She'd acquired more possessions since coming to school but not so many that all of her stuff didn't fit into her suitcase and backpack. She dropped her suitcase, and bag off at the airdocks to be loaded onto the next ship as luggage and she spent the rest of the morning wandering Beacon. She hadn't been here that long but somehow it felt like years. She walked by her old haunts, the little garden where she'd go to practice violin, the section of the grounds where she did her morning run. All the little places she knew she was going to miss.
As the afternoon classes rolled around Sapphire decided that their were some people that she needed to talk to before she left; two people in particular. One had been something akin to a friend and the other had been a constant thorn in her side but still she felt the need to say farewell to both of them. Right now they'd be in Armoury Class.
At the door she poked her head into the classroom. "Professor, if I can, I'd like to talk to Oswald and Gren for a moment. They won't be gone more than a few minutes." With the teacher's approval Sapphire had the two people at Beacon that for better or worse she was closest to. "There's something I felt I should tell you before you hear it from whoever handles dorm assignments." she turned towards Gren. "Good news, you don't have to plot against me or feel threatened by not being in the leadership role anymore. I'm leaving Beacon." Sapphire paused again. There was something so final about saying the words out loud. She was going. Maybe one day she'd come back, but it would never be like this again.
Her hand clenched as she tried to find the words to express what had happened. Sincerity wasn't exactly her strong suit. "During... during Family Day, before the race, my little sister Demetra had a seizure. She's alright but it was bad. Bad enough that she's going to need someone to look after her. That's always been my job." She gave a shrug as though it wasn't a big deal but she couldn't quite bring herself to smile. "I'm leaving school."
It was this next part that was harder. The goodbye and the last words that went with it. She wanted some privacy when she talked to Oswald so she decided to start by saying her last to Gren. "We're not friends. This time she did smile, sarcastic though the grin might have been. "I doubt we'd have ever become friends but whatever else happened, whatever problems we had, I respect your skill and your willingness to put yourself out their to protect others. I hope you find whatever it is you're looking for at Beacon. And tell Shiro..."
Sapphire broke off, she didn't have the words to convey what she wanted to tell Shiro, to express her frustration, her exasperation and her certainty that because of his nature things would end very badly for him at Beacon but also that she sympathised with his pain even if she didn't really understand it.
"Tell him good luck." She didn't have anything better.
She motioned to herself and Oswald. "If you could give us a moment."
After Gren had returned to the classroom Sapphire paused for another long moment trying to think what to say.
"I'm... I'm not very good at this sort of thing. Severing the spine of a nine foot shadow bear comes a lot easier. Thank you is what I'm trying to say. You were the closest thing I've had to a friend in a long time. Even if we didn't hang out as much as we could have it was comforting to know you were down the hall if I needed someone."
At this point most people would have expected a hug but Sapphire had never been that sort of person. She held out her hand to shake Oswald's. "Demetra told me that you were lost, I don't know what happened or how you ended up here but I hope you find your way Oz. Good luck. Who knows, if things change I might be able to come back to school, my father arranged to have my spot held open should that day ever come. Though she doubt her team would still be missing a member if that ever happens. "Goodbye."
With those simple words Sapphire turned her back on the Armoury classroom door, on the halls of Beacon, and for the time being her dreams of being a huntress.
She and Demetra were flown away from the school some hours later and as she looked back at the great towers of Vale rising above the waterfall she couldn't help but feel that she was leaving somewhere she belonged. But as she glanced down at her sister, asleep with her head in Sapphire's lap, at peace, she knew whatever she was leaving behind, it would be worth it to see Demetra smile again.
@MULTI_MEDIA_MAN@Lucius Cypher
Post 3000, a fitting number to bid farewell. Good luck everyone.