Dramatic week but we manged to get a chapter done, yay us.
Chapter 3
"GET IT OFF! GET IT OFF!"
Zack stared at Genesis blankly, wondering just how such a man could become one of the most skilled men in SOLDIER. He had to fight laughter as his superior officer flailed about helplessly through the surprisingly thin foliage, desperately trying to save himself from his horrible fate.
"They're flies, Genesis" Angeal stated, finding even his patience running thinner by the minute. "Just ignore them."
"That's easy for you to say!" Genesis stopped squirming long enough to scream at the obviously unsympathetic members of his group. "You already look like you've been playing in a mako reactor. I still have a chance to be beautiful, but not if these things start laying eggs in my face."
"I'll help!" Reno exclaimed, bursting from the bushes in a fit of suspicious enthusiasm. Pointing his hand at Genesis, flames erupted from his palm, not only dispersing the flies, but also leaving Genesis's face blackened and his hair singed. Everyone went completely silent, as Genesis stood still for a moment, blinking. Then, reaching up with his hand slowly, he felt what was left of his hair.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!" Genesis screeched; his pitch higher than any recorded in human history. On it went for a full minute, before Genesis's eyes rolled back into his skull and he fainted, landing with a thud in the thick underbrush.
"Oops?" Reno grinned without so much as a hint of regret.
"Well, at least he'll be easier to manage now." Angeal said simply, then scowled at Reno and pointed at him. "You did it, you carry him, come on Zack."
"What?!" Reno exclaimed, watching as Angeal and a still wincing Zack began to make their way through the dense jungle. "That's not fair! You two are the steroid injected monsters manufactured by Shrina! Oh, come on!"
Finally, defeated, Reno bent down and hefted Genesis onto his shoulder. Sighing at his predicament, he began to make his way to follow the two soldiers. "This bites."
"How exactly is being beautiful relevant to the situation again?" Zack couldn't help the smirk as he listened to the redhead's unhappy grunts of exertion in the background mixed with enough colorful words to make his old drill sergeant blush.
Angeal shrugged. "Maybe he thinks there will be natives he can charm into helping us out of here?"
"Or maybe he hopes the resistant leader is gay, thus giving him a higher survival chance should we get caught."
"I heard that!"
SMACK!
"What?" Reno shrugged at the disapproving glance Angeal tossed him and twirled his trusty EMR back into its holder on his belt.
"You know he's going to get you for that when he wakes up, right?"
"I could always hit him again…" Reno got in one more smirk before Angeal huffed and turned to continue pushing his way through the jungle.
"You're welcome!" Reno called after the retreating back. "Geez, no appreciation whatsoever." With another huff the much put upon redhead adjusted his burden and took off after the others fast as he could. Would they really blame him if he wished the weight he was currently stuck with really was as dead as the damn saying?
...
"Sir, would you like something to drink?" Sephiroth looked in surprise as startling eyes a color that gave root to the name appeared.
Unaccustomed to such close proximities Sephiroth went with the most automatic reply. "No thank you."
Nodding as response, Cloud returned the canteen to the pile he had managed to salvage and sat next to said stuff; sure it was a safe distance from, but still close enough to keep an eye on the General. He wasn't sure what he had done to piss off the man but the accusations from earlier still stung. Compiled with the fear of being basically alone in a strange place in a bad situation with the man he had idolized all his life being brought so very low, he was just able to hold himself from the brink of hyperventilating.
Sephiroth's body berated him soundly for his refusal of the much needed liquid. He'd lost too much blood from those injuries and the salty tang of the air in his lungs combined with the heat of a tropical mid-afternoon sun were taking their toll on his already shaky hold to consciousness. Was his pride really worth it? If anything the wear would begin to show faster.
In a moment of indecision he turned a bleary, contemplative gaze at the young cadet. How long had it been since the offer, maybe if sufficient time had passed his request would not look like he regretted his hasty answer.
But no the boy was still just settling down, meaning barely a minute had gone by since then. Stubbornness reasserted its hold and he firmly pressed his lips together and tried to ignore the signals his body was sending him.
Deciding to find something to occupy himself as distraction, he quickly found other than smoldering wreckage, golden sand, and a nice view of very intimidating jungle, the only thing that presented itself was a tiny blond cadet. Even the waves he could hear were denied him due to the fact he was seated with his back to that direction.
Mentally sighing long-sufferingly, he ran his eyes over the drab cadet uniform. Boring as he remembered them. He was young, like most dreamy-eyed cadets were. The head of spikes definitely outclassed even Zack's but were almost the same color as this damn sand.
The last remaining thing that remained to be classified and analyzed were the eyes. But those were very firmly downcast as if the boy refused to acknowledge anyone at the moment.
Oh Gaia he hoped the boy wasn't going into shock. The last thing he needed now was to have to comfort some snot-nosed brat after their shot at being brave ran its course.
"Cloud," startled eyes snapped up to meet his, "that is your name right?" Affirmative nod, "How long was I out?"
Surprisingly the cadet needed no time pulling himself together to reply. "Well when we crashed was this morning I wasn't really paying attention because we were all occupied with getting on the beach in one piece, but the first time I managed to look at my watch after that was about eleven, by then we had almost given up the search and I didn't find you for about another hour. The second time you passed out after I… worked on your wounds, you were out for about three hours."
The question had little relevance besides maybe giving him a general guess of what the time was but it served its purpose. The boy's eyes were young with hints of rooky fear drifting around the edges but otherwise clear and thankfully focused; no need to worry there.
But why was that damp little look tugging at something just above his stomach? Oh right, he'd accused the boy of fabricating his report. What the heck was that? The crash had sounded unlikely when he heard it, but now that he thought back he realized it was the honest truth. Had it been the relaying of Genesis's reaction that he found so hard to believe? And why was his head hurting so much even with the painkillers?
Suddenly frustrated with the multiple factors spinning painfully through his head with no reachable answers Sephiroth began struggling to his feet, startling Cloud in the process.
"Sir!" Cloud tried to protest, not daring to approach the older man just yet, the sting of his recent reprimand still fresh in his mind. "You really shouldn't be up in you condition."
Sephiroth glared. He was the fucking General. How dare some insignificant brat tell him what to do. Ignoring the sudden scream in his side, he continued using the piece of metal he'd been leaned against as a handhold to pull himself up.
Cloud was in a panic but couldn't help giving it one more try. "Sir…" This time he couldn't help withering under that heated look.
The General was conscious but the slight dazed look in his eyes informed the boy something, most likely the painkillers or loss of blood, was messing with the man's mind. Erring on the side of caution he rose to stand a respectful distance from the struggling man. "Where is it you want to go Sir?"
Sephiroth just barely heard the question through the roar of blood in his ears. The pain was starting to come back and it took everything he had not to slump back to the void tugging at the edges of his consciousness. "To find the others of course," he managed to say as if it were the most logical thing to do after getting a chunk of helicopter yanked out of your side.
Now Cloud was truly starting to panic. Sephiroth was whiter than the fluffy clouds billowing on the horizon and the dazed look was turning glassy. The only things keeping Sephiroth up were his damn stubbornness and a death grip on the remains of helicopter hull he was hanging on to for dear life.
Coming to a decision Cloud stood smartly to attention and moved forward as if to help Sephiroth the rest of the way up. As expected he was stopped in his tacks by another look. Nodding smartly he turned to the pile of supplies as if to collect necessary items for the trip.
Moving so he was sure the other couldn't see what he was doing, Cloud pulled out the three med kits they had managed to salvage. Besides the basic bandages, tape, tourniquets, pain meds, and antiseptics, there were several Antidotes, Hypers, and morphine shots but not a single sedative. It would seem the desired item had been lost in the time the cases had spent floating to the beach.
Great, just perfect. Of all the times to need them the most. Glancing back at the slowly weakening General, Cloud cast one more anxious glance around before resigning himself. Desperate times called for desperate measures. SOILDERs were notoriously thickheaded even when injured and the cadet had no intention of discovering if this was true first hand at the possible cost of his hand.
Before leaving Angeal had had the presence of mind to build their stock of supplies as much as possible while they were still all in relatively good condition. Besides the pile of items scavenged from the crash there was also a large stack of drift wood and several freshly chopped trees laid out to dry in the tropical sun. The branches had been set to one side in the event building a shelter became necessary and the fruit gathered in a neat pile.
It was from this later pile that Cloud selected his instrument of doom. Careful to conceal the guilty item by keeping the hand hold it just slightly behind his leg out of Sephiroth's immediate line of sight, Cloud took a fortifying breath and approached the man.
"Sir, do you require assistance?" Cloud was sure if the glare had still been on the same level as the ones earlier his resolve would have melted like ice under this tropical sun. Luckily it would seem Sephiroth's efforts to rise had drained what little energy he'd started to regain and he now barely managed an unfocussed growl at the boy.
Mentally thanking whatever deity was on his side today that the man had not managed to get farther than mostly upright on his knees; Cloud firmly grasped the offending object and raised it to get a good momentum. Some of the drill yard training and a stubborn glimmer of his old hero worship stayed his hand long enough to offer a guilty, "so very sorry about this Sir," before swinging down with all his might.
A thudding 'crack' broke the stillness of the otherwise tranquil afternoon as the coconut made very firm contact with the side of the General's head.
Sephiroth just barely hung on to consciousness long enough to give the tiny cadet a surprised 'oh' before his eyes rolled back in their sockets and he slumped to the sand unconscious.
Yeah I know Cloud seems a bit OC but I always thought the if he really was as chicken as everyone likes to think he is then how the hell did he get so far.
Reviews please #3
