Rebirth of a Holy Dragoon
Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy. OCs belong to various friends. I think you know the drill by now.
Warnings: You don't remember the list of warnings I gave before? Fine. Here. Cursing, potential OOC, OC x Canon, stupid fluffy romance, sex, angst, self-insert author avatar, shitty storytelling.
FIC START!
Chapter Fifty-one
Canti was grinning from ear to ear. She stood among some of the greatest people within all of the history of the realms, many of which she'd done extensive research on, quite a few she wanted to emulate in both mannerisms and fighting style. None more so than those who all called themselves dragoons. It was an awesome title. Not only did it sound incredibly badass, but they wore some of the most intricately designed armor, and had access to some powers that no other kinds of warriors in all of history could hope to pull off. She had her own spear, one that she'd been given by Kain on the day they'd met, and she'd been doing all she could to learn about it. How it felt in all sorts of situations. Getting used to carrying it around in a special holster that made it hard for her to go through doors as quickly as she used to without having to learn a few tricks to boost her own agility.
Kain was at her left side, as he was always known for being. Many party members had come and go through all sorts of missions, but he was never far from her. As she was just as left handed as he was, he'd been her prime instructor for learning how to properly wield all pole-arms. Canti liked learning from him, as he always took the time needed to explain everything in cool, calm, collected detail as many times as she needed to hear it to understand what it was he was trying to teach. The instructors within the academy were never so kind to help her without giving her shame or making remarks that she had some sort of learning disability under their breath.
And, to her right, her self-proclaimed adopted father figure, Cid Highwind was explaining things in even more detail. Things about how to handle her own weight, things about how to treat the spear as a part of her weight, but not to cling to tightly to it. He got into mathematical equations about being in the air and fighting against gravity. Canti didn't understand that. Who needed to learn numbers to properly use a spear? He only smiled when she gave him that half-frown she was so keen on giving when people were talking about things that went way over her head, gave her hair a ruffle, and apologized for having blabbed on too far. Cid had learned how to use a spear at a class in a military academy in Junon, in the Seventh Realm. Many others his age opted for swords, or firearms, or the fascinating study of how to use materia to create magic, but since Cid was a pilot and a scientist of flying things, learning how to use the spear according to all the science he'd been studying all his life in to pursuit of becoming a Flying Ace was just second nature. He loved her genuinely as any overprotective father would love a daughter who only wished to follow in his footsteps.
"Are you ready?" Cid asked, giving her a hard pat on her shoulder. "I wanna see you Jump. We've all ready told you all we can. It's time to give it a shot."
She turned to look at Kain and he nodded. "Cid is right. You're more than ready. There's only so much instruction you can learn from a teacher. You need experience."
"It isn't battle, but you shouldn't try to use it in a life or death situation without having practiced it first," Cid said. "Go on. Freya was nice enough to make you a target to practice on." He gazed at it. That target was weird, but whatever. At least there was plenty of, uh, something to hit.
Canti looked straight ahead to see the target. It was awfully big in comparison to a normal target. She stared at it for a moment, noting that it was human shaped. Though fat. With bluish skin? She didn't have to think about it for more than a few seconds. "Freya, may I ask you a question?" she asked.
"What is it?" Freya asked from behind the target.
"Is there a reason why the target looks like Queen Brahne?" she put her one free hand on her hip.
Freya shook her head. "No, there's no reason why the target that you will be practicing sacred Dragon Knight techniques on looks like a genocidal matriarch that slaughtered the only people in my realm who upheld the tradition," she replied with a shrug.
"I'm surprised Vivi hasn't come through to set the damn thing on fire," Canti grunted. Though if I remember right, he's on Hikari's team, and they're on assignment right now.
"Stop getting distracted," Kain said sternly. "You asked to be taught, so get to it. We can't tell you how to improve if you don't get yourself off the ground."
"Right!" she nodded, taking her spear into both hands and jumping up into the air. She was out of everyone's vision as soon as she lifted off.
"Good," Cid whispered. "Let's see how she lands."
Canti did all of the things that all of the dragoons had taught her. Keeping her spear close, like it was an extension of her own body. To center herself along the spear itself, to use her weight to guide it to the target. To, as Kain once put it, become like a human arrow. It was the combined force of both the spear and the person who wielded it that created the blow at impact, not just one or the other. She loved that feeling of being suspended in the air, and she had the feeling that Papa Cid liked it because it reminded him of being on a flying aircraft in the sky. She saw the Queen Brahne-shaped target and started her descent.
Canti wasn't sure what happened after that. She landed right on her tush somehow, with her spearhead stuck into the ground. She was staring at the target from where she was sitting, but a few seconds after she crashed, her body fell backwards and she was unconscious from the force of landing straight onto the ground from being up that high.
Immediately the team of dragoons surrounded her, with Kain himself collecting her into his arms to carry her off to the infirmary, which is where he had brought her more times than he'd ever seen any other keeper end up there combined.
"That wasn't so bad," Cid said. "Let her sleep it off."
"Wasn't so bad?" Kain argued. "She fell at full force! I wouldn't be surprised if her legs weren't broken!"
"The girl's legs ain't broken," Cid said, shaking his head. "She didn't land on 'em. This'll be a good learning experience for her. She'll learn not to do whatever it was that did this."
"I know she calls you Papa, but you aren't her father. Don't even begin to think that the cruel, military bootcamp way you always brag about learning is how she should learn. That's cruelty. Canti is not a soldier, and she shouldn't be treated as one." Kain said, glaring at him before he went into the infirmary hall.
"And your father, he wasn't as strict as hell with you?!" Cid yelled back at him, not bothering to follow Kain in there. He wasn't going to have a full on verbal lashing from that mopey kid with a dragon fetish in front of patients that needed rest. It wasn't worth starting trouble in a place that needed to be quiet.
"She's hurt herself again, has she?"
"Oh, it's you," Cid turned to see a close friend of Canti's standing there. "I guess you overheard our discussion, then."
"It's not hard when you both are so loud. At least it makes sense that Canti finds family among you…"
Cid laughed. "Work hard, play hard. That's how I've always been. I'm not changing for anyone."
"That's not entirely true…"
"What are you doing here, son?"
"I was on my way to the training yards. I'd heard that the dragoons were planning on putting on a demonstration. Who knows, I could even learn a thing or two from them?"
"Spellblades don't have much in common with dragoons, do they?" Cid pulled a cigarette from the pack he always kept in his headband.
"The agility needed. I would love to learn more about how to turn my weight into increasing my agility to better use in combat. And that's something dragoons are quite gifted with."
"Except for my haphazard daughter!" He laughed even harder as he lit it up and took a drag. "That girl is the clumsiest dragoon I've ever met. And I know myself."
Kain came out of the infirmary, this time holding his helmet rather than Canti. He approached Cid, not wanting to give Canti's friend a passing glance if he could help it. Those two had never really understood each other on any level, and there was no chance he saw it happening any time soon. "I would have thought you to be a little more supportive than that," he grunted. "Your habit of laughing off every serious thing worries me! Do you want Canti to laugh in the face of danger? In the face of eventual death?!"
"You think she doesn't all ready?" Cid asked. "When she rescued me, she was standing on the very tip of my rocket, in the rain, laughing her ass off! She was fighting with ShinRa assholes all the way up the damn thing, daring them to chase after her!" He shrugged. "You were there. You remember. I know you do."
"Beside my point!" Kain said, crossing his arms. "She needs to learn to keep her composure both in training and while on the battlefield, because if she doesn't, it's going to cost her. And when that happens, you'll be sorry you ever let her be this way."
"I have to agree with Sir Kain… don't think I haven't been trying to teach her that for as long as I've known her."
"All we've got when we're staring death in the face is laughter," Cid said. "When it comes for me, I'll be laughing until I cross the river Styx and beyond that. I'll be laughing as I burn in the seventh pit of hell." He took another drag on his cigarette. "Might be leftovers from my life as a soldier. Might be me trying to hide the scars of my previous battles. Might just be being a fucking jackass."
"Your daughter isn't a soldier. She isn't shell shocked the way you are. And she certainly isn't a jackass," Kain disagreed loudly, shaking his head. "You cannot treat her the way you were treated in your… bootcamp, I believe you said it was?"
"So you want me to treat her like a squire, the way a knight would? Is that how you were trained?" Cid laughed at that, but not in the same jolly was he was known for. He laughed in a mocking tone.
Kain didn't seem like he wanted to talk about that. "I was trained by my father until he died in an accident claimed his life." He turned away. "By the way. You were right. Her legs aren't broken. She has some soft spots, but… she'll be fine as long as we let her rest a few days."
"That's typically how she ends up after one of her accidents…"
Kain couldn't help but agree with that, even if he didn't always get along with that one friend. Though, when he looked over there, he was certain that he saw a young man that had to have been around Canti's age. This time, he saw a girl in that same spot. Someone shorter, with teal hair instead of something that was brown. He blinked a few times. What was going on here? "I'm sorry, Crystal, but were we looking for your commentary?"
"I just wanted to look to learn from the dragoons the way my friend does… you think a blacksmith doesn't need to know how to be agile with their hammers?" Crystal asked. "And when I heard that the one person I know who might become a dragoon was going to be at their demonstration, I wanted to see her… I…" she looked down at the ground. "I really wanted to see her progress. She's always been so lost. I don't. I didn't come all this way, giving up my free study time during the weekend, for you to treat me like garbage, Sir Kain Highwind!" She stomped off, carrying her huge hammer in another direction.
"Did it just get colder in here, or is it just me?" Cid asked, finishing up his cigarette to flick it on the ground and stomp it out with his steel-toed boot. "You need to learn how to treat Canti's other friends with some decency. She's close to you, but she's close to others, too."
"...Cid."
"Yes?"
"There's no way in hell we can ever be related."
"HA! Now there's something we can both agree on!"
…
Einar felt beads of sweat travel from his forehead, sliding down his face, only to fall off at his cheek. "Another memory involving him rewritten," he said, stopping to take a sip of coffee. He took a deep breath, letting the warmth of the coffee course through him. "Only…" Einar took a peek at the stack of papers that sat to his right. "…a whole lot more to go. Of course." He sighed. Before he went to rewrite another memory, he decided to do another system check. He keyed in a few commands before he was given a bright red emergency symbol in the center of the screen. "Oh Cosmos…! This is bad!"
