Chapter 1: Names

a/n: my first Beatrix story guys. It kind of links with one of my other stories (cheat the system) but not so much that you have to read the other story to understand this one. ( but it would make me happy if you did)

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I spread out my arms feeling the wind rush through my fingertips and hitting my forearms as if god were trying to blow all the woes and worries off my tiny body. "Daddy make it go faster!" I yelled as my father made the chocobo run faster. I tried to stand and fell off the steed.

My father turned the beast around and hopped off, "Bea, try not to be so dangerous." He helped me up, "no more rides for today let's get back to house. Me and my father walked hastily back to the wooden cabin we called home. All that supported us then was our large chocobo breeding farm. Just me and dad, all my older sisters died in a barn fire before I was born, my mother was killed shortly after I was born, because after the barn burnt down we had no money and she tired to steal money from a noble to support us. They executed her for stealing five gil… barely enough for a loaf of bread and cup of juice. It had never affected me until I was a teenager, when I realized how nice a mother would be to tell me about life.

The war started when I was fourteen. The king had ordered a member of each house hold to join in on the effort. Father readied himself to go. I didn't want to loose him, he was fifty-six years of age with arthritis and all sorts of problems. I could not allow him to go off to war there was no way he would live for it. I had heard that they began to let women enroll into the male populated Alexandrian army. I joined behind father's back. He was devastated when I told him. He reminded me of how young I was and how I was throwing away my life. I, in turn reminded him how old he was and how he would be losing his life if it were him. I left him, no I love yous, no hugs, just emptiness. I would soon realize just how cold hearted I could become.

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They gave me a helmet, gauntlets, boots with spurs, full body armor, and chain mail I struggled carrying it back to my bunk. There were other girls in my room, all with terrified expressions, a lot in a similar situation to my own. "I'm going to die!" one girl sobbed.

"WHY ME?!" Another cried, "I'm far too young and beautiful to have scars and rough palms!"

I raised an eyebrow, "stop being such pussies. We're here to defend our country, be proud and stand tall." I hid it, but I was terrified as well, I didn't want to go to war, even if it was for the country I loved. I was only fourteen, had never been kissed, never been to Lindblum, never felt true love, I had so much to experience. Once, death had seemed so far in the future and now it seemed to be creeping up on me.

I soon found out I was the youngest. The youngest of every soldier, boys and girls. They had planned to throw the teenagers in the back line. In front of us would be the oldest and the front line was planned to be middle aged and experienced soldiers. We were split up into groups and we trained.

"Can you believe this? Them letting women in the army like that, everyone knows only the men can strive in Alexandria." Two men ran beside me during our training on the first day, the older looking one of the two was the one who spoke to me first, "Hey babe, what's your name? Mine's Adam, that's Hebrew for man, you know cause' I'm ALL man."

"I see that," I glared at his scrawny body then over at his stronger looking friend, "So what's your friend's name does his mean much more of a man than Adam will ever be?" I smiled, "My name is Susanne." With that, I ran off ahead of them. I felt as if every time a man demeaned me for my gender that I needed work harder to prove them wrong. In fact I found that every time someone said something about my gender I would add ten to twenty pounds to my weights while training.

Several weeks after our first encounter, Adam's nameless friend came and sat across from me during my dinner, "Susanne… right?"

I laughed a bit, "That's not my real name, I said that to get your pig of a friend off my back. I'll tell you my real name if you tell me yours"

"Oh, uh mine's … Adelbert…" He smirked, "It means much more of a man than Adam will ever be."

I had to keep myself from spitting out my food in his face, I chuckled a bit instead, "My name is Beatrix, it means traveler, by the way… what does yours really mean?"

"I have no clue, never cared enough to." He gobbled down some mashed potatoes

"Why did you enroll?"

He looked up, "My Dad's the General of the army, he needs a successor." His voice squeaked and he cleared his throat and put back on his 'manly' voice, "I'm hoping I'll get the chance to be General, ya know?"

"I doubt a kid in puberty will be taken seriously as a general."

"Hey!" He squeaked, and then reapplied his manly voice, "I mean, Hey! What do you know; you're just a female soldier anyways."

"You sexist jerk! I bet I could become General before you could even get to lieutenant!"

He stared at me in disbelief, "you're on."

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The war raged on, and they still hadn't called me or Adelbert into war. I would train everyday for hours upon hours and he would be in there training with me, for the most part. Sometimes we would see who could stay in there and train the longest. Almost a year would pass before me and Adelbert would be called to war. There we were side by side in the line facing towards what might have been our doom. We watched our comrades fall, people in our age range fall to their deaths. Blood had spattered us and we were being swung at and aimed for. The people on the other side were like us, just fighting to live. They didn't care if we were fourteen or if we were fifty-five, we were a threat. And them to us.

I couldn't see anything, it was so foggy. I felt a cold blade run against my face. The fog that once killed my vision was replaced by my blood and I could see nothing but blackness in one eye. I fell to my knees fretting for my life. I wiped my eyes of blood and felt the pain as I wiped the blood from my right eye. It stung and I could see nothing but blackness. It was painful, but I couldn't stop fighting, I would die for sure if I did that. I winced in pain as I poured water from my canteen onto my eye. I had no cloth to cover it; I hoped that the water would take care of infections at the time. I struggled to my feet. I felt an arm on my shoulder, "Beatrix, we must join together!" It was Adelbert… my vision was too foggy to see but that was his squeaky voice I heard.

"Okay, be my eyes though, I cannot see anything but blurs."

"Yeah, your right eye is damaged severely." I heard him gasp and a clash to my side, "Beatrix your right!"

I wildly swung at the air to my right. I heard a clank and a scream. "Good job Beatrix" Adelbert said, "now in front of you!"

Adelbert remained as my eyes until the battle would end. I would wake up in the morning with a bandage over my eye and General Steiner at my side, "Good morning, Beatrix"

"OH! General Steiner!" I saluted, "What are you doing here sir?"

"My son, Adelbert asked of me to see you, he said though you were virtually blind you still killed many soldiers last night. That's honorable you and my son are two out of the three hundred of your age group to return last night."

"Only three hundred?" I remembered so many other people in our age group, "that's horrible… so many died."

"Yes, but for an honorable cause. They will be remembered for many years to come. Beatrix, your work last night proves your potential. You will grow to be a wonderful female soldier."

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a/n: Oh notice how Gen Steiner uses the word FEMALE in his last sentence.. that bit him in the arse later, promise. okies dokie is it boring? Is it drawn out? Let me know! See that button that says go right next to the scrolly box that says submit review use it. See you next chapter (hopefully)