Sorry, sorry, sorry! Wow, it's been so long so I've updated and I promise I have been working on this chapter it's just been so hard! I had no idea where it wanted to go! Damn story being in charge of its own damn story line. Anyways, I guess seeing Zoe finally update inspired me to update as well, I hope this is alright but like I said it was pretty hard so it may just be crap. Yeah. SORRY.


Tough.
I ain't ever been nothing but tough,
All my edges have always been rough,

Oh, backbone!
There ain't nothing wrong with a woman who got a little backbone!
- Tough, Kelly Pickler


Taz woke up that morning with a feeling of trepidation in her stomach; she quickly ran to her en-suite bathroom and threw up what little food she had had the day before. After she had finished emptying the contents of her stomach, she leaned heavily against the toilet breathing in deeply. She sighed and mentally reprimanded herself for being as scared as she was. Be tough, she scolded herself, staring angrily at her hands, Be tough for them, prove everyone wrong. Prove that idiota Lieutenant Up wrong. With that thought she managed to shakily push herself to a standing position and brush her teeth. She stared in the mirror as she did, despising girl in the reflection; she was a broken girl, anyone could see that. It was in her eyes, in the way she held herself, in the grimace that was noticeable even through the tooth brush. Taz turned her head away and decided that she would no longer be that girl. She would no longer be the helpless damsel-in-distress; when the time came she would be the one kicking the robots' ass, she never wanted to be as weak as she was at her quinceañera. She was going to be tough.

By the time Taz had left the bathroom she had perfected The Look. The Look that she would later be feared and respected for. The Look that said, 'I don't care about anything,' and 'I will destroy you if you get in my way.' Her back was rigid, her jaw was set and her eyes were hard. A small voice in the back of her mind reminded her that it was not dissimilar to the way Lieutenant Up had looked but she squashed that thought away in the corner of her mind that held her quinceañera. She was nothing like him.

After she had hastily pulled on the too-big blue uniform that all the Cadets had to wear she stalked out of her room, grabbing the timetable on her desk as she did so. It was only six o'clock so Taz decided she would try and find the mess hall and hope to get some food down her before she was expected to participate in combat for the entire day. Following the direction she saw most of the cadets and officers walking in she felt eyes on her; remembering her resolve to be tough she walked confidently down the hall with her eyes straight ahead. Even so, she heard the familiar jeering comments being thrown in her direction.

"That's her? She doesn't look like much."

"I heard she took down two robots."

"Look how badly she's beaten up, she won't last 10 seconds in the ring."

"I heard Lieutenant Up's furious. Johnson saw him in the gym beating the crap out of a punching bag and muttering about the standards of the G.L.E.E. dropping."

"She's going to get killed."

"How old is she? 8?"

Still, she walked down the hall, pretending to ignore the comments from her peers just like she had done for the past fifteen years of her life. She knew she could fight and would last a decent amount of time in the ring. She'd been scrapping on the streets since she was a kid, much to the displeasure of her mamáand abuela, so she knew how to throw a few punches. She didn't know everything but that was why she was here: to learn.

Finally making it to the mess hall she walked quickly to collect some breakfast. There wasn't much choice although she had never expected to receive luxurious food at the Academy, she was just grateful there were some foods she was familiar with and not the compressed food she often heard her papa complaining about. After taking her plate from the surly-looking lady behind the counter she turned to the table area. Her next problem quickly presented itself to her as she realised that she had nowhere to sit. She was just about to give in and take the food to an empty table at the back of the room when she felt hands on her shoulders. Looking behind she saw Drane smiling at her, she smiled slightly back before he directed her to a table where Herson was sitting. She sighed in relief; she had no problem with sitting alone it was just nice to see familiar faces on her first day at the Academy.

"Well, good morning Taz!" Herson cried through a mouthful of egg, Drane rolled his eyes and dapped at his husband's mouth with a napkin. Taz laughed slightly and dropped herself into the chair opposite the pair.

"¡Buenas días, Tio!" Taz cried, happily tucking into her food as she realised she was starving.

"Did you sleep well?" Herson questioned, raising an eyebrow in her direction,

"Si, I slept like a baby!"

Drane laughed and roughly patted her shoulder, "I don't know how you sleep so much, girl! At least it means you're up nice and refreshed for your first day at the Academy! What lessons do you have today?"

"All day combat." She replied. She faltered when she saw the two men share a quick, worried glance, "Qué?" She questioned dubiously.

"Nothing!" Herson replied, too quickly, "I'm sure it will be… an experience!" Drane nodded in agreement.

Taz raised her eyebrows but decided not to comment on her uncles' unusual behaviour, she was sure she would find out what got them worried soon enough.

They ate the rest of the breakfast in silence, listening to the bustle of the Academy around them. They still heard the frequent comments about Taz but no-one thought it wise to mention. Finally, the seven o'clock bell was heard and each person stood up to go to their various activities.

"Good luck, Taz!" They called as she quickly hurried out of the hall and walked towards what she hoped was the main gym; it wouldn't do good to get lost on her first day.


Taz waited in line with all of the other cadets looking the epitome of a perfect soldier even though her first day of training hadn't even begun. She stood at the very end of the line with her back straight and eyes forward ignoring the chattering and giggling 18 year olds beside her. She was clearly the youngest and undoubtedly the shortest and, to make matters worse, she was the only girl. The other Cadets kept shooting her quick glances, she knew they were probably talking about her, still wondering how she got into the Academy, she swore she even heard one smart-ass comment that she had probably slept her way in. She felt the sudden anger rise in her and she clenched her fists ready to turn and beat the boy into next year. However, she managed to control herself and just ignored them and waited for the time to show them why she had earned her place in the Academy: when they were allowed out in the ring.

Taz knew she was a relatively good fighter and although the older Cadets she had seen in the hall when she first arrived had intimidated her, she realised that most of the weak-looking boys who joined her in the hall were probably less experienced than she was. This idea boosted her confidence slightly and she grinned to herself. If she could prove on her very first day that she was tougher than most of the chicos in her year, that would be a sure way to secure her reputation. She glanced down the line to check out the competition. Idly, she realised that the pure fact she was calling them her 'competition' and not her 'peers' or, Dead-God-forbid, 'friends' meant that she already had the upper hand over these idiotas. The rest of the year seemed to have already formed their friendship groups, a thing Taz found astonishing as she assumed that everyone else had arrived the day before just like her. The others would have a harder time injuring their friends; she, on the other hand, had no problem with sending at least one of them to the medical bay. She surveyed the boys and saw a mix of people. Admittedly, there were one or two boys who looked like they could stop an 18-wheeler with their bare hands and Taz quickly decided that she would hit the gym at least twice a day so she could stand a chance of beating them. There were some happy-go-lucky cadets who were aimlessly gazing around the room as if they weren't in the Universe's top training school. Taz almost felt a pang of pity for some of the cadets who looked like they just wanted to be holed up in the science department rather than be facing a beating. Taz averted her eyes to the front again happy that, within time, she should be able to floor every first year at the Academy. The thought made her smirk before she realised she was supposed to look tough and she dropped the smile from her face.

The doors slammed open and immediately the class hushed down as they waited for their teacher to appear. Taz almost groaned out loud when she saw none other than Lieutenant Up walk in – it was like Dead-God was out to punish her. Why did she have to train under this idiota? Her earlier confidence was almost completely washed away at the sight of him, from what she'd heard in her very brief time out in the halls, Lieutenant Up was not a man to be messed with and from the way he'd hit her without remorse she had no doubt about that fact. She felt the beginnings of true fear begin to brew in her stomach before she squashed it, though it was true that this man already hated her, he couldn't do too much damage while they were at the Academy, could he? She silently cursed the Admiral for assigning Herson's ship to the Academy. Sure it was nice to have her Uncles around while she felt the place out but if it meant being murdered by Lieutenant Up every combat lesson then she would gladly have let them leave. She sighed inwardly as she realised that she had the Lieutenant for the entire day; her Uncles' reactions made a lot more sense to her.

Lieutenant Up glared ferociously at the cadets as he walked to stand in front of them, Taz thought she heard one of them whimper quietly. "Fall in, cadets! Now!" The class quickly rushed forward and stood to attention in front of the terrifying Lieutenant. He slowly walked down the line, frowning and shaking his head, occasionally making some sort of comment like, 'Sort that hair out, cadet, this is an army not a fashion show,' and 'Straighten your back boy, would your Ma let you slouch like that?' When he got to the very end of the line and saw Taz, he simply scowled and muttered some shit about how the Academy was just letting anyone in these days. Taz lowered her arm and made a fist, "I did not say 'at ease', Cadet! Are you fucking stupid?" He screamed in her face, making her want to punch that ugly look straight off his face,

"No, Sir, I am not. I just don't appreciate the way you talk to me. You seem to be confused about how I was accepted into the Academy so I thought I'd show you?" She phrased it like a question, as if almost daring him to fight her.

Taz had never physically seen anger flood into a man's face before and she concluded that it was probably one of the most terrifying images she had ever seen. Still, she held her ground even as the Lieutenant's face turned slightly purple and his nostrils flared. He raised a hand to smack her and she flinched a small amount before he seemed to rethink and pointed a big finger in her face, "You insolent little shit! How dare you talk back to your superiors! You actually believe you would win in a fight against me?" He sneered in her face and stood back slightly, "Right here boys, is the example of a girl hiding behind her own arrogance and do you know what we do with arrogance?" He yelled, down the line being met with a couple shakes of heads, "I said," He growled through gritted teeth careful not to just forget the rules and kill one, why did they put him on babysitting duty again? "Do you know what we do with arrogance?" This time he was met with a loud chorus of 'No, Sir!' and he nodded his head in approval, "We beat it out. And we'll have time for that later. Right now, little miss, get your arse over there and drop and give me 50."

Taz's eyes narrowed. 'Little miss'? Okay, now she was mad. Who did this gigante idota think he was? She was a cadet at the Academy and she thought that she would be treated with just a smidgeon of respect. She sarcastically saluted him, much to his apparent displeasure and as she was walking away she muttered some Spanish insult under her breath,

"What was that?" Up thundered, rounding on the small Mexican girl,

"I called you an 'idiota'. I know it may be hard for you to work out so I'll translate it for you, it means 'idiot'." She called, looking up to glare into his eyes. She'd already anticipated the back-hand slap that came her way and braced herself – it didn't make it hurt any less though.

Up breathed through his nose heavily. He had been warned by the Admiral, Herson, and Drane that Taz would be in his class and he had been explicitly told not to send her to the medical bay but it was proving difficult. It was as if the small, weak girl knew every button to push to send him over the edge. He wasn't always so irrational but it was something about her that made his anger just spill out. Still, he thought grimly, at least the other brats won't dare cross me. He tried to let himself feel any remorse or sorrow for intentionally injuring a fifteen-year-old girl but he couldn't find it in himself.

"100! I swear to Dead-God girl, by the time you're done in this institute you'll be so obedient you'll run to your death for me. Now shut the fuck up and do your press-ups."

As she walked over to the edge of the hall to start her press-ups, determined not to break and give him the satisfaction, she heard him order the rest of the group to do 10 laps of the field outside. She pushed herself back up and allowed herself a glance at the cadets' faces. While some of them, such as the truck-like fellas, were regarding the field without a trace of worry on their faces, most of the cadets were looking terrified. Taz scoffed. It was just running! It wasn't like he was forcing them to do the obstacle course that Taz had spotted on the field. Sure, it was a fairly big field, bigger than any she had seen back in Mexico, however, that didn't mean it was something they had to be scared over.

She heard them amble loudly out of the hall and heard them break into nervous chatter about how terrifying the Lieutenant was as soon as the door closed. Taz rolled her eyes; did they seriously think that he couldn't hear them? She could hear them and she was on the other side of the rather large hall.

Somehow she knew that the Lieutenant was still in the hall regarding her every move so she forced herself to keep her back straight and eyes down while she continued ruthlessly ploughing through the push-ups as if they were nothing. Truthfully, she was only on about 20 and her arms were burning. The most push-ups she had ever done in a row were 10 and that was only when she was forced to in P.E., she was not used to this exertion of her arms. Taz heard the Lieutenant approaching her and resisted the temptation to look up at him.

"I am going to break you, girl." He whispered harshly, surveying her from above with distaste, "Your Uncles and the Admiral seem determined to get you through your time here but mark my words your life is about to become a living hell."

"My life is already a living hell, idiota, do your worst." She hissed, blinking the sweat from her eyes and forcing herself not to think about her quinceañera. With every cell in her body she hated the fact that she owed her life to this man, the man that was determined to see her fall, to watch her fail.

"You have no idea what you're getting into, kid. You might just die from it." He said calmly. Surprisingly, it was the calm that terrified her the most.

Still, she scoffed as if he wasn't making her wish she was never born and said, "I'd like to see you try."

She heard him move slightly closer to her and then felt an overwhelming pain and he slammed his foot on her back. Her face hit the floor full on and Taz felt lucky to not have a broken nose, she landed on her arms painfully and the force of his foot had knocked the wind out of her. She lay there coughing, struggling to regain push-up position with his foot still perched on her back.

Slowly, he bent down next to her, applying more pressure to her back and making her cough harder, and put his mouth next to her ear. "You should never have started this game with me. I always win."

With that, the foot and his presence disappeared as he stormed out of the hall to go and scare the rest of the group into submission.


Just as Taz finally finished her 100 push-ups, the rest of the group began filtering into the hall looking as bad as she felt. She stalked back to the group, sweaty and out-of-breath, and joined the not-so-tidy line as their Lieutenant stood in front of them and began some bullshit speech.

"My name is Lieutenant Up and you will call me Lieutenant Up or Lieutenant or Sir. No variations of those three unless you want to end up in the medical bay. I don't give a fuck who you are nor do I want to hear about your pointless lives. You will not speak unless spoken to by me or another superior officer. I don't care for slackers, for back-talkers and for people who only got into this Academy because their Uncle is an influential figure in the Galactic League." He was staring directly at Taz as he said this, making it obvious that he wanted to humiliate her and make her classmates think she was weak. She focused her glare on him and stared directly into his eyes. He wanted to play dirty? Fine, then, she decided, straightening her back and preparing for the worst, Let the games begin.

"He's not my actual Uncle, or were you too estupido to figure that one out? I know it must be hard for you." The class muttered among each other about how she must have a death-wish. Taz was beginning to wonder the same thing, she had no doubt in her mind the Lieutenant was being completely truthful when he said he never lost. She didn't know why she thought she could take him on. Still, she held her position and continued to stare him down.

"SILENCE!" Up roared, terrifying the first-years. Taz jumped slightly and broke eye-contact with him; she scowled at the floor as he continued. "You will go over to those mats, spilt into pairs and spar. Now."

The first years looked around at each other as if deciding whether or not Lieutenant Up was serious. None of them had ever sparred before so it seemed unlikely that they would even be able to land any punched on each other. Up watched their hesitation with growing annoyance, "Right, you incompetent little fools, pair up with the person next to you and get your asses over to the mats before I personally send each and every one of you to the medical bay. Dead or alive." That made the cadets jump into action.

Taz looked to the guy to her left and saw him eye her up carefully. He was taller than her by at least two heads but looked like he was better suited for fixing some electronic crap rather than fight the loud-mouthed Mexican who had already pissed the teacher off twice before lesson even started. "Well come on, idiota." She mumbled storming over towards the closest mat, she heard him shuffling slowly after her and she rolled her eyes.

She turned to face him as he made it onto the mat and she settled into the basic sparring stance her papá had once taught her. She shifted her weight to the balls of her feet and bounced slightly, making sure that her feet were shoulder width apart. She positioned one foot slightly in front of the other for balance and pulled her fists to block her face and ribs while she watched him try to prepare in the same way. Immediately she could tell he had no experience prior to joining the Academy. His stance was weak and while Taz could never claim to be an expert she did know a few ways to beat him. Deciding to start out lightly she punched his shoulder and watched as he stumbled back. She looked at him in surprise, despite the fact that he wasn't balanced at all a small punch like that shouldn't have moved him. He simply shrugged at the surprised look on her face and aimed a feeble punched at her head that she quickly grabbed. She spun him around still holding onto his arm and heard his satisfying cry of pain when she pulled his arm back too far. She kicked him to the ground and moved back around to face him and he shakily got to his feet. She immediately dropped back into stance and began circling around him, he began to follow her, seemingly determined not to let her behind him again but in doing so he crossed his legs. Big mistake. She waited until they were crossed again before she quickly swept her leg under him so he went tumbling. To his credit he pulled himself back up to face her again and tried another feeble attempt at flooring her. She had to admit he did move his leg pretty quickly and it would've come into contact with her waist if she didn't have such fast reflexes, she spun out of the way of the kick and punched him hard in the face. He fell to the ground again but this time refused to get back up. As she watched him lay on the floor in defeat, she sighed. She knew she had a lot to learn at the Academy and she knew she wasn't the best fighter in the world but how did they expect her to progress if she only participated in fights where she didn't even break a sweat? She had thrown two punches and he was on the floor.

She turned and watched the rest of the class sloppily punch each other without much enthusiasm, "Lieutenant!" She called, earning a few groans and 'not again's from the others. She ignored them and focused her eyes on the seething man on the other side of the room, "You can't expect us to just know how to fight, you need to teach us technique!"

Up raised an eyebrow and walked over to her from where he was observing in the corner, "Oh, I'm sorry, I had forgotten that you were qualified to teach a class and knew exactly how to run one. I was observing what skills you all already possessed but if you feel like you could teach the class better then be my guest." He stood back sweeping his arm behind him, signifying the class was hers. She stood back in shock, feeling blood rush to her face. When she didn't step forward, he smirked, "Don't want to take it? No? Then stop interrupting my lesson Cadet Lopez or I will be forced to remove you. Fall in everyone."

She scowled and moved into line with the others and he began to explain the correct stance, basic punch and kick techniques and how to block them. After a long-ass explanation involving some whimpering cadets as Up used them for examples, he called for them to spilt and spar with another person. "Lopez." He called as he saw her wander off to wait for the last person to not have a partner, "Since you think you're so experienced, you can fight me."

The class erupted into mutters, a Lieutenant fighting a first-year cadet? On their very first day no less! Nobody dared mention that the Lieutenant had taken a very unorthodox method in teaching them and Taz stood rooted to the spot for a while, eyes drilling into his. He offered her a small smirk and stood back onto the mat, waiting for her. She couldn't let him win by refusing to fight him, her pride wouldn't let her do that but, as much as it pained her to admit, there was no way that she would win in a fight against him. She doubted very much that he would go easy on her.

As he watched her fight her hesitation he allowed himself a brief moment of thought and scolded himself for what he had said. There was no doubt in his mind that he wanted to hurt the girl but he had always, always been able to control his anger around people he hated. He pushed her Uncles' voices out of his head but Drane's voice slowly reached him anyway. "Lieutenant, I know you're not a man to be reasoned with but if you send Tazia Lopez to me hurt in anyway because of your hand, there will be consequences." He had scoffed and rolled his eyes, believing that Drane couldn't lay a hand on him but he also had agreed to what he said and now he had just invited her onto the mat to get the shit beaten out of her. Smart move, Up. He inwardly sighed but allowed his smirk to grow when he saw her hesitation. I always win.

Much to his surprise (although he would never show it) Taz's shocked look settled into a scowl and she stepped up to the mat looking him straight in the eyes. She kept doing that, he noticed, looking him dead in the eye, pretending she wasn't afraid of him although he knew that he terrified her. She infuriated him to no-end and he began to think that if he finally let his frustrations out on her, she would get out of his mind. Every arrogant and annoying thing she had said or done to him when he rescued her kept playing over and over in his head as he tried to work out how one girl could affect him so much. He cracked his knuckled and let a sneer grace his features.

She hadn't known him very long but Taz had already decided that she hated the Lieutenant. She felt a bolt of fear shoot through her at the look on his face. Though she knew it was probably illegal for him to kill her, she really feared for her life. She settled back into her stance and watched as he did the same, a mad glint in his eye. She eyed up his stance and checked for weak spots just like he had taught them (and she hated that she had to use his own advice to fight him). When she couldn't find any she sighed very quietly and settled on dodging his attacks for as long as possible. He smirked as he saw the barely-there resignation in her eyes and clenched his fists tighter together. This was going to be very satisfying.

The rest of the class had forgotten about their own fights and had gathered around the mat eagerly awaiting the 6-foot giant take on the 5-foot Mexican chica. "Dead-God," someone muttered, "It's like David and Goliath." There were some snickers that were ignored by the pair on the mat.

"Yeah," someone else replied quietly, "And we all remember who won that fight, don't we?" There were murmurs of approval but one boy braved a beating and yelled,

"But, Sir! You'll murder her!" Up slowly circled Taz, watching as she almost stumbled trying not to cross her legs and laughed coldly.

"Don't worry, Cadet. I'm not legally allowed to kill her. If I knock her out, I'm sure one of you will take her to the medical bay!" Taz gulped as unnoticeably as she could and studied Up's movements. His eyes were locked on hers and for the tiniest moment she allowed herself to realise how blue his eyes really were. Quickly shaking that muy extraño thought out of her mind she focused on his movements instead. His fist came out of nowhere, one second she was staring at him, the next she was staring at the ceiling, flat on her back. She rubbed her stomach and winced when she already felt a bruise coming up. For the second time that day he had knocked the wind out of her and she lay there trying to imagine a way, any way for her to beat him. "Come on, cadet, GET BACK UP! Get up! You're not going to win with your arse on the ground are you? No!"

Gritting her teeth, she shoved herself up and got back into stance, already anticipating his next move and just managing to dodge it. He growled as his punch reached nothing but the air and sent a punch towards her head. He watched with furious surprise as she yet again ducked his attack quickly, his fist skimming past her hair. Reminding himself he wasn't allowed to kill her he sent a kick in her direction, hoping to put her off but she lifted her legs and jumped, seemingly one step ahead of him each time. It was like she was reading his mind. She kept skipping past his punches and kicks, infuriating him more and more, before he finally burst,

"This is all very good, Lopez, but what are you going to do? Dance a robot to death? Fight back, dead-Goddammit!" He growled and kicked out again only to be met with another dodge.

"Shut up, idiot!" She screamed, skilfully ducking underneath another punch, "You know full-well I can't place a hit on you!"

He yelled and finally swept her feet from under her, "I AM YOUR SUPERIOR AND YOU WILL RESPECT THAT! NOW GET THE FUCK UP AND PUNCH ME!" She lay on the floor, terrified as she watched his contorted face drop back into his usual scowl. She groaned, hoisted herself up and aimed a feeble punch at his arm. He grabbed it, spun her around and twisted it painfully, just like she had done earlier to her sparring partner, she allowed herself a quick feeling of sorrow for hurting him in the way she was being hurt. She didn't allow herself to cry out but she realised with a start that he was actually going easy on her before. He lowered his mouth to her ear and hissed, "You are weak, Cadet. Nothing but weak. The only reason you are here is because you have nowhere else to go. Because Herson took pity on you. Believe me, girl, if he hadn't had found us, I would've happily left you there." She whimpered inaudibly and he shoved her to the ground. "Class dismissed."


Yeah, so, how are you guys feeling about mean!Up? And the fact they hate each other, though, of course, I am a hardcore TUp shipper, I really do like this idea! And I LOVE writing mean!Up :D

Okay, please review? xD