His Angel
Chapter 2
It wasn't until a week later that Tatsumi decided to make her way to SOLDIER HQ as she put it. She was surprised though when she received a call earlier in the week from Zack, checking to see how Sky was doing. That was the other reason why she was making her trip. Sky was doing better, but he still couldn't walk around very much at the moment. He was mainly stuck in bed or sitting around the ranch unable to do very much. She had had to wait a bit before deciding to leave to make sure that infection didn't set it from the beast bite.
If she were honest with herself though, then she would have been paying more attention to herself instead. Tatsumi was already feeling the effects of infection setting in from the deep claw marks on her back. It was something that she had kept from Sky, not wanting him to worry about things further. Regardless though, she really couldn't do much about it. She tried to keep it clean, but infection still set in, causing problems for her during daily work around the ranch.
The whole thing in general irritated her as she rode on Strider's back toward Midgar, the movements making her wince on occasion. She couldn't help, but to think of the current increase in monster activity lately. They'd be showing up more and more often all around and it left her wondering what was causing it. It was even worse that some were popping up in places where they shouldn't be.
Suddenly, everything changed as she was thrown off of Strider's back and onto the ground. Something had startled and scared him and he soon ran off, leaving Tatsumi laying on the ground.
"Strider?" she called, standing up and brushing herself off.
Although as she looked around herself, she found nothing, nothing at all. Nothing, but the trees and grass around her. As she stood there though, she noticed something, the strange quietness that surrounded her. This made her grip one of the swords at her side, holding the hilt tightly in her hand.
Within seconds, her sword was out and protecting her as a large beast jumped out at her from the shadows of the trees. It was a shadow beast of some sort, dark in color, but that's all that she knew as she blocked a spiked tail from hitting her. She was then rolling out of the way as another one tried to attack her, quickly kicking it in the face, causing it to howl.
"Where are these things coming from?" she voiced aloud as she whirled around on another, cutting into it with her sword.
Unfortunately, this only ended her up on the ground with one of them on top of her, causing her to scream out in pain as it dug its long claws straight into her shoulder. Her scream practically sent the beasts into a frenzy, fighting each other in an attempt to claim her, and nearly trampling her in the process.
She tried to get away as they fought each other, only to have one grab hold of her leg with its claws, pulling her back to it. At this, she turned around, gripping her sword as she thrust it up into the beast's chest.
It let out pained cry, before falling over onto its side dead, leaving her to lay there for a moment as the others growled and snapped their fangs at her. She was realizing too late that the longer she was there, the more she was becoming surrounded. She barely even had time to stand up, before she was knocked back into a tree, here head colliding with it painfully.
I need to do something, she thought as her vision started to become hazy.
She stood there for a moment, clutching her shoulder painfully.
"It's now or never," she spoke aloud, not noticing the stranger that was watching her in the distance.
Then, right as one of the monsters leapt at her, she threw her hand out and yelled.
"Firaga!"
The moment those words left her lips, a huge rush of flames came bursting from her hand in a bright red light, burning the beasts in front of her. It was like an explosion of power as it destroyed the beasts, frying them to a crisp. The action itself practically brought her to her knees, zapping her of strength. It had been years since she'd used magic and now it had been her only hope. She couldn't even think of anything more as she fell forward onto the ground, here vision borderline black as she laid there with her shoulder bleeding out.
It was supposed to be a simple trip to Midgar and back. Now, she was laying there all cut up with a stranger walking toward her slowly, their footsteps well placed as they walked. Their stride held purpose and strength, the weight only increased slightly by the abnormally long sword that they carried with them at their waist. They said something to her, but she couldn't hear them as she laid there, her mind going in and out of consciousness. They didn't really even say anything at all as they knelt down and picked her up in their arms, carrying her back to where they had come from, but not before picking up her swords and taking them with them.
T
"Hey, who ya got there yo?" came the sound of a man's voice.
"Go away Turk," the other ordered, holding onto the woman that lay practically unconscious in his arms.
From there, he walked into the elevator, pressing a button to take her up a few floors.
Everyone around him moved easily out of the way as he exited the elevator and walked into the hall, heading down to the infirmary.
"G-General, Sir," a nurse gasped as the man walked in.
The woman was startled by the sight in his arms and quickly ushered him over to a bed where he could lay the injured girl down.
"What happened?" she asked, looking over at the man.
"There was an attack, monsters prowling around the area again," he explained, gesturing to the wound on her shoulder.
The nurse nodded her head, making quick work to clean the woman up, but not before closing a curtain to block the General's view of the woman.
The General only let out a small snort at this, before walking off out of the infirmary and down the hall. He didn't really know what else to do, he had completed his mission and was off just to waste a bit of time when he had found the girl fighting off the shadow beasts. He was still surprised at her skills and persistence when fighting them. Perhaps that's another reason why he had saved her, instead of leaving her lay there to bleed out and die. After thinking about it, he knew that it was one of the reasons. Another reason though was the fact that he could see the amount of potential that she held to perhaps be one of the best.
"Hey, Sephiroth, where have you been?" he heard his friend call from behind him, turning around to face him.
"Angeal," he voiced, scratching the back of his neck for a moment. "I just got back from my mission," he said, letting his hand fall back down to his side.
"You should have been back over a hour ago," Angeal said skeptically. "Where were you really?"
Sephiroth merely chuckled at this, before throwing an arm around his friend's shoulders and walking down the hall.
"Wasting time," Sephiroth said.
"Wasting time? You were wasting time?" Angeal asked, still skeptical as he raised an eyebrow at his friend. "You found something, didn't you?"
With a sigh, Sephiroth released his friend and pinched the bridge of his nose lightly as he laughed.
"You're as bad as Genesis, I swear," he told Angeal, walking through a set of doors to the lounge area.
Sephiroth sat down on one of the couches, propping his feet up. Angeal sat down across from him on another couch, looking at him expectantly, causing him to sigh.
"I found a woman," Sephiroth admitted, making Angeal give him a questionable look. "I thought I'd sweep the area for monsters since they've been a problem lately. That's when I found her," he explained, earning a nod from his friend.
"So, where is this woman then?" Angeal asked curiously.
"Over in the infirmary," Sephiroth told him, leaning his head back and closing his eyes. "She'd been fighting a few of the larger shadow beasts and ended up wounded, so I brought her back here. Although, here's the real kicker," he raised his head back up to look his friend in the eyes. "She used magic."
"Magic?" Angeal's brows furrowed in confusion, since normally only SOLDIER's and Turks used those powers.
"Firaga to be precise," Sephiroth told him.
"Are you sure? Something like that takes training, not to mention a lot of energy," Angeal stated.
"I know what I saw Angeal and I know what I heard. She yelled Firaga right before it happened," Sephiroth stated in a matter of fact way.
"Alright, I believe you," Angeal said in defeat.
"She also had these," Sephiroth said, placing the two swords down on the small table in front of him for Angeal to see.
"Interesting…" Angeal mused as he inspected the swords.
Sephiroth raised an eyebrow at his friends comment, curious as to what he thought was so interesting.
"Have you actually taken the time to look at her swords Sephiroth?" Angeal questioned, holding one of them out to him.
Sephiroth just shook his head no, taking the sword from Angeal's hand. He studied the finely crafted piece of metal for a few minutes, turning it this way and that. It was a customized sword from what he could tell, although, it was still more like a katana in a way with its slim built blade. He also found it interesting at how balanced it was, making it easier to use. With this, he concluded that she was quick with her sword skills.
"What are you thinking?" Angeal asked warily.
"I'm thinking that she might be an interesting opponent," Sephiroth said with a grin as he continued inspecting the sword.
This caused Angeal to give him a dry look.
"You can't be serious? Fighting a woman and an injured one no less," he said in exasperation.
Sometimes, he couldn't believe his friend. Out of anyone, Angeal would have thought that Sephiroth wouldn't even think of fighting an injured woman. Then again, it was also rare for Sephiroth to find a possible challenger other than Angeal and Genesis.
Several minutes later, the nurse came walking into the lounge area, catching the attention of both men.
"I'm sorry about disturbing you sir, but someone will have to take her downstairs to either Hollander or Hojo for a small Mako injection. I'm afraid that's the only way for the wound on her back to start healing properly," the nurse said, causing Sephiroth's brows to furrow in confusion.
"On her back?" he questioned.
"Yes Sir, I thought that you knew since you brought her in here?"
"No, I didn't," Sephiroth told her as he stood up, Angeal following suit as he walked out of the room and back down to the infirmary.
"Sir, wait!" the nurse called.
It did little good though as Sephiroth stepped into the infirmary, throwing back the curtain, and pulling away the back of the girl's shirt.
"Sephiroth, what are you…" they both stopped and stood there.
Before them, the girl lay on her stomach, her back now completely exposed to them. This allowed them full view of the scarring skin on her back. At this point, part of it had turned a nasty yellow, inevitably sealing her fate of scarring.
"Those look like wolf claw marks," Angeal commented, scanning over them with his eyes.
"Indeed they do…" Sephiroth said quietly. "She must have come from Kalm."
"I heard that there had been reports of monster sightings there," Angeal said.
"Which means it hasn't been taken care of," Sephiroth said flatly.
Alright everyone, that's chapter 2. I hope that everyone enjoyed it. There'll be more Sephiroth in the next chapter ^^ Anyway, thanks for reading and please remember to REVIEW and MESSAGE me with your thoughts and opinions on the story.