A Daughter To Be Proud Of
Chapter 1.
The girl sat in the train station, trying to ignore the rowdy boys who were messing about nearby. Her dark brown hair fell across her eyes, and she flicked it back, while carefully keeping her dark eyes staring straight ahead.
The train that would take her back to Balamb, finally arrived, and she gratefully climbed on. Placing her card in the slot provided, the computer asked what she would like to do.
'Please credit to cost to Balamb Garden.' She replied steadily
'PLEASE STATE NAME AND NUMBER.'
'Leonhart-Loire, Tharria. Number, three-four-six-alpha.'
The computer spat out her card, and told her to proceed to the carriage.
She flopped herself into a seat, and tried not fall asleep. Dad, was gonna kill her as it was anyway, without falling asleep and missing her stop, to add to her crimes.
Finally in Balamb, she caught the last bus back to Balamb Garden, and sat herself in one corner away from the rest of the travellers. Mostly, SeeDs on their way back after a night out. Thankfully they were too drunk to recognise her, and talked among themselves about the highly successful mission, that was the reason for their celebration. Tharria, just stared out of the window, and watched the landscape roll by, a slight worried frown creasing her forehead.
The apartment she shared with her parents was dark, as she tip-toed towards her bedroom. A door opened and light flashed across the hallway,
'What sort of time do you call this?'
Busted.
Turning to face her father, Tharria prepared herself for the worst.
'Well?' he said, standing in the doorway of the bedroom, 'You said you'd be back by 9:00, and now it's gone 11:30. Your mum and I were worried sick.'
'Well, I stayed at Elette's house longer than I thought, and when I got to the train station the next train to Balamb wasn't for an hour! So I had to wait, and then I caught the last bus back.'
Her father glowered at her, his arms crossed across his chest. He looked about to say something more, when her mother appeared beside him.
'Squall, leave it till tomorrow morning,' she said, taking his arm,
Mum always seemed to calm Dad down when he was annoyed with something, usually his errant daughter, who always seemed to be doing something which displeased him. Tharria loved her mother so much. She was beautiful, and clever and had practically raised Tharria by herself, since Squall had always been busy with the running of Garden.
She watched as the frown slid off Squalls face, and he sighed,
'Ok, I'm coming to bed, but I am going to speak about this tomorrow,' he said firmly
'Of course , dear,' said Rinoa, and gave Tharria a lopsided smile when Squall turned to go back to bed, 'G'night, darling,' she said, and shut the door.
Tharria lay in her bed and felt angry. Angry that she'd been late home, and given Squall a chance to be angry with her. Angry that he was never satisfied with anything she did, no matter how much better it was than many of the SeeD trainees. His daughter had to be perfect, which of course she was not.
She rolled over, and sat up. She looked at herself in the mirror of her dressing table, a girl with long brown hair, not as light as her dad's, but paler than her mothers. Dark brown eyes like mum, but she realised she shared dad's face shape, except she only frowned when she was worried or stressed. When that happened, people often teased her, saying how much she looked like Garden's Headmaster/Commander, not realising how much she disliked being associated with him.
The girl in the mirror stared defiantly back as Tharria looked on. Tall for a 16yr old, fit and slightly muscular. Even though she wasn't a SeeD or training to be one, Squall had taught her how to use his weapon of choice, and she'd had to perfect every move till she was beating even the SeeD's trained to use gunblades. Even that hadn't been good enough for Dad. When she did better than everyone else, she got no praise, only 'let's move on to the next thing'.
Ach, she felt disgusted with herself, no point in sitting up all night moping. She looked sidelong at her gunblade which leaned against her wardrobe, and grinned. A session in the Training Area would take her mind off things. Briefly, she thought of the trouble she would be in if she was caught, but then decided she was already in trouble and this would be her last chance to train before Squall grounded her.
Pulling on her tight dark blue jeans and her hooded, pale blue, jersey jacket, she picked up the gunblade and headed towards the training area.
When she got there, she was promptly met by a monster who tried to poison her with its tentacles. Dodging out of the way, she charged in and hit it with the gunblade. The monster fell back with a cry of pain and began to cast some kind of a spell on her. Tharria retaliated by striking back with another attack from the gunblade, being careful not to pull the trigger. She knew the noise of a gunshot after curfew would cause questions to be asked. She was hit by poison, and immediately began to feel weak. Thrusting her hand into her pocket she found a vial of the antidote, and quickly drank it. The affects quickly dissipated. The monster screeched in fury and lashed out with a tentacle. Tharria swung the gunblade around, and chopped off half of the monsters tentacle. Facing it squarely, Tharria lowered her blade and closed her eyes. The monster charged in for the kill, but was thrown back by the firaga spell which Tharria had cast. She casually walked over to it's charred remains to check it was dead, and then moved on.
Peeking into the Secret Area, she could see that no-one was there. Too late even for lovers to be about. She walked over to the low balcony, and leaned on it.
The moon was full and bright, and the stars twinkled above. It was beautiful up here, in the dead of night, when silence was her only company. Under the moon and stars she could think things through, and she could cry alone, about the father who had been seemingly jealous about the love her mother gave her, since she had been born.
It was a good thing she had no brothers and sisters, because they would have needed even more of Rinoa's love and nurturing. Although, perhaps it might've been good to have brothers and sisters. That way Rinoa wouldn't dote on her only daughter the way she did. Tharria knew why Rinoa spoilt her, and why she was an only child. Rinoa couldn't have anymore children. They had only discovered it after the near disastrous birth of Tharria.
It had turned out that Sorceresses had trouble bearing children, due to the fact that their bodies would reject the child because they were not part of the Sorceress's being. That was what explained Cid and Edea's lack of children, and why Edea had become the matron of an orphanage.
As it was, nobody could explain how Tharria had survived. She had been born prematurely, terribly weak and small, destined to grow up to be a sickly child who always needed care and attention. But Tharria had defied that fate, thanks to her fathers scathing looks when she acted 'weak' as a young girl. She had worked hard and became strong, stronger than many SeeD's, but still it was not enough for her demanding father.
Sighing, Tharria took one last look at the brilliant moon, and left the secret area.
Her head bowed, and lost in thought, she didn't notice the T-Rexaur until it's claw knocked her flyng across the training area. Standing up and shaking her head to get rid of the dizziness, Tharria readied her gunblade.
The T-Rexaur roared defiantly, and charged. Tharria leapt out of the way, and began to cast protect on herself. She was knocked flying by T-Rexaur's tail, the 'protect' spell took the brunt of the assault, but Tharria's gunblade flew from her hand. She flipped up from her lying position, only to see the T-Rexaur's tail coming for her again. She back-flipped to avoid it, and began to cast sleep on it.
The spell hit the huge beast, and it shook it's head drowsily. Tharria grinned at herself, until she saw the brief affects wear off.
Damn, it missed. A claw narrowly missed her face as she dived to one side and rolled up to a standing position. Where the hell was the gunblade? She thought glancing around looking for it. There it was, just beside that bush behind the T-Rexuar. Glancing at the monster, she cast Blizzaga on it, and charged towards her weapon, as it was briefly stunned by the spell. She bent to pick it up, only to be hit in the back, and knocked face-down onto the floor. Not fast enough, she mentally cursed herself.
Rolling over, she saw the T-Rexaur roaring over her prone form triumphantly.
A spell hit the T-Rexaur, and it looked startled, before falling into a deep slumber.
Tharria leapt up to see who had helped her. The tall blonde haired SeeD cadet smiled at her, and adjusted the gloves on his hands. Tharria recognised him as the son of Squall's best friend.
What was his name again? Oh yeah, Dincht. Kieran Dincht.
'Looked like you were havin a bit of trouble there,' he said cheerfully.
Tharria looked embarressed, 'Yeah, well….thanks.'
'Hey it's no trouble,' was the jaunty reply, 'Although I was surprised to see that a SeeD needed help.'
She smiled at the inadvertent compliment, 'I'm not a SeeD,' she replied.
He stared at her, 'Well I know you're not a cadet, coz I'd recognise you from class, so what are you doing in the Training Area, if you're not a SeeD?'
Walking over to pick up her blade, she looked at him with arched eyebrows and said, 'I was Training in the Training Area.'
She began to walk away towards the exit, her gunblade sheathed at her belt.
'But, if you're not a SeeD, or a cadet, then what do you need to train for?'
She stopped, angry, because the question brought up images of Squall drilling her endlessly on strikes, and sweeps with her blade. Why did she train so hard? Because she wanted to prove to herself that she could? No, said the more honest part of herself, it was to prove to Squall that she would be the best. To prove that he was wrong in thinking she would break under the endlessness of not living up to his standards. To prove to him that she wasn't a weakling, and was worthy of his praise.
All this flashed through her mind, but in reply to Kieren, she merely said, 'That T-Rexaur isn't gonna stay asleep forever you know. I'm getting out of here while it's in the land of nod, I advise that you do the same.'
Kieren turned around to check the T-Rexaur was still asleep, and when he turned back, the girl had gone.
He walked along the corridor towards his dormitory, his gloved hands shoved into his pockets, and shoulders hunched. What had made him go to the Training Centre anyway? Well he hadn't been able to sleep of course, but why go there? He shrugged mentally, as he slipped into the dark room he shared with another cadet. He walked into his own room and sat on the bed.
He still wondered who she was. He felt like he knew her from somewhere. Perhaps he'd seen her working around Garden.
He pulled off his boots and pushed them under the bad. Yeah, that was probably it. She was some kind of librarian, or cleaner he'd seen about. He paused in the act of undoing his jacket. But that couldn't be right, she carried a gunblade, which she held like she knew how to use it.
A gunblade….Who else carried a gunblade? Well not many people. It was a highly specialised weapon. The famed Squall Leonhart used one, and Seifer Almasy, Head of the Disciplinary Committee. Few SeeDs had been trained to use one, and only one cadet in his class was being trained to use a gunblade. He lay back on the bad, and put his hands under his head.
Squall Leonhart did have a daughter, though, he remembered, and then dismissed the thought. Everyone knew the story of the strange birth that shouldn't have happened. Because of the fame of Rinoa Heartilly and Squall Leonhart-Loire, the birth of their daughter had been highly publicised. Even though he had been only a baby too, the story was one which was frequently brought back up by the newspapers. He shook his head. It couldn't be her. Their baby was very weak, and he remembered the newspaper articles that described her every little cold as a threat to her life. No, it couldn't be Tharria Leonhart-Loire.