Chapter 8
A Test of Skill
Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy or it's characters, but anything outside of that.quite possibly does.
A/N: Sorry it took so long to get this chapter up, but no worries. Chapter nine is already started and will be up.VERRY soon. Enjoy.
The elevator doors opened to the 61st floor reveling benches, tables, trees, and people who were apparently slacking off to there jobs-in Daitona's eyes that is. Her eyes swept the room and her nose wrinkled in distaste. She hadn't been allowed on this floor prior to that day, but Guld hadn't showed up. The evening before, during another 'visit' to Hojo's lab, Guld's absence came to light.
'You will not be training with Guld anymore,' Hojo had commented.
Daitona had responded with the question, 'why'?
While going about his own business, not even bothering to glance at the girl he answered, 'because you have bested him and I have use for him yet. I don't need you killing him, so the only alternative is to assign a higher- ranking officer to your training. I trust you've enjoyed your day off today, tomorrow you'll be introduced to one of our officers in charge of training the SOLDIER recruits.'
'Oh joy, lucky me,' she had responded sarcastically.
'Trust me.it'll be interesting.quite interesting.'
Daitona sighed heavily and stepped out of the elevator into the lounge area. So far her new trainer had left an impression on her-a fool hearted slacker.just like the rest of these people. He was late and had sent a messenger to tell her to meet him on this floor. Now she was there where she was suppose to be and again the trainer was nowhere in sight. She hadn't even met the man and she already had a dislike for him.
She allowed her eyes to roam the area once more taking in ever detail, then studied the people who were wondering around here and there-some sitting and talking with other employees and some who seemed to be waiting or enjoying there solitude. It was then that her eyes belayed a familiar face, but not one she would have chosen for a second meeting.
'Mark,' her mind's eyes recalled. 'Mark?' 'Remember your attempt to escape?' 'That Mark, are you sure?' 'Are you denying your own judgment?' 'He hit me.maybe I ought to pay him back for that.' 'You won't have too.' 'Why not?' 'He's spotted you and by the look on his face he recognizes you too. He's on his way over here now.' Daitona shook her head successfully clearing her thoughts in time to be knocked down.
Mark leered down at her. She lay still recollecting her thoughts and senses, before she slowly brought herself back up to her feet.
Mark laughed. "Never would have thought I'd see YOU around here again. And you're as weak as you were then." He laughed again.
"That's what you think," Daitona growled.
A smile played across her face; if it hadn't been after her just being knocked down it would have been an almost friendly gesture. This smile however, was filled with content and so almost gave her an evil look.
With what training she had behind her, Daitona moved with such swiftness Mark never seen the blow coming. Her clenched fist made precise contact with his mouth, ultimately shutting him up for the time.
A gash on his lip bled from the blow, as did his nose. He spit blood from his mouth along with three of his teeth.
Before Daitona could do anymore, she was grabbed from behind. One arm around both of hers to keep her pined, and the other around her waist; she was lifted from the floor until only her toes still rested on the floor.
"Let me go! You're going the wrong way! He's going to get away.AGAIN! LET GO!" Daitona demanded when she knew her captor was moving back away from Mark.
"What did I tell you last time?" came the reply next to her ear; his voice was hushed.yet so familiar. After a pause he went on, "I told you to leave it be and to just calm down.well, maybe not in the exact words but still the same point. Wouldn't you agree?"
Suddenly in hit her and Daitona knew immediately whom that voice belonged to.
The arm holding her kept her in place until Mark had made his exit. When he was gone out of sight, Daitona was released. She slowly turned and the first thing her eyes caught a glimpse of was long silver hair. Looking up her eyes caught and held glowing green-blue eyes. The coldness in his eyes was startling, but in a matter of seconds his eyes softened.
He smiled at her and shook his head slightly. "You haven't changed one bit. Well, you are stronger, I'll give you that." Sephiroth closed his eyes and laughed softly. "Your accuracy has improved too, you didn't miss."
"Pretty big target, how could I miss it, and I should be better," Daitona said in indigence. "I have been learning how to fight after all. It's kind-of fun, ya know?"
"Yeah, I know. We should go get our sword," Sephiroth said turning slightly.
Daitona looked a bit confused. "Why?"
Sephiroth creased his eyebrows for a moment, before answering he let his face go back to normal. "Didn't Hojo tell you you were getting a new trainer today?"
"He did, and this trainer has yet to show up," she replied, trying to keep the annoyance from her voice.
"He's running late. I guess Hojo forgot to tell you we were going to training together for now on." Sephiroth shrugged. "I was sent up here to get you. We should be going now. We have a long walk to basement level 2, and we still have to get your sword and mine." Sephiroth had started towards the stairs with Daitona in tow as he spoke.
"Swords," Daitona corrected as they started to decent the first, of many, flights of stairs.
"What?" he questioned, and glanced back at her.
"You meant swords. I use two swords, not one."
"I see," Sephiroth said knowingly, with a nod.
The rest of the descend to the 38th floor was held in silence. Sephiroth took long, swift strides across the room to the cabinet where he knew his sword and hers to be locked in. Retrieving a key from his pocket he made quick work of removing the lock. He first took his sword and attached the sheath across his back. Daitona waited in silence as Sephiroth secured his blade then reached into the cabinet again to pull out a set of dagger-sized swords.
Daitona didn't question to as 'why' her swords were here; she simply took them from Sephiroth when he offered them to her. She slipped the belts around her wait then tightened the second to keep the swords from moving about as she moved. She pulled each blade about half way out from their sheaths then replaced them after a quick examination.
"Are you any good with those swords?" Sephiroth asked after watching the care she took on putting them on and checking them.
"I guess I'm pretty good," she answered looking up at him after she was sure the swords were secured. "My last trainer quit or got reassigned," she shrugged in indifference, "because I was better than him. I've been using these swords for a little over three months."
"Care to test your skills against mine?" he asked.
Daitona searched his face and eyes to see if he really meant what he had asked. There was nothing there to indicate he didn't mean it.
"Now?"
"Yes, and I assure you that if you can't defend yourself well enough I won't push it. I'll try not to hurt you." He paused and thought of an idea. "How about this, the first one to loose there weapon.weapons loses?"
"Ok," Daitona finally agreed with a sigh and took the sword she normally used in her right hand from its sheath; Sephiroth in turn took his Masamune from his back.
"You sure you want to use that short sword?" he questioned, eyeing the clean blade of the sword 'Moon' doubtfully.
"You'll see."
Before his eyes, Sephiroth was amazed to see the metal of the blade grow and extend to a fare-sized weapon.
"Impressive, I didn't know you had such powers," Sephiroth said smiling all the while.
"Comes with the territory. The sword already had the power it only takes some provoking to persuade it to do such things." Daitona gave the sword one last examination before she crouch into her fighting stance.
Sephiroth followed her move and did the same. Mentally he pointed out the flaws and weaknesses in her stance, he'd have to point them out to her later.
He waited for Daitona to make the first move; in doing so all the openings he had seen were instantly guarded. He was impressed, but at the same time he took note of the new flaws.then they were gone.
Sephiroth shook his head and did a double take as he carefully blocked her swings. 'She's doing it on purpose,' he marveled. 'A strategy meant to throw one off who is looking for any attack openings. She keeps you searching for the openings she purposely presents then moves.' His mako eyes glittered with the mood of this battle, he was thoroughly enjoying this fight. 'Now.to find her pattern, there has to be one, but where is it?.'
"THERE!" Sephiroth brought the Masamune up swiftly deflecting her sword, at the same instant dislodging it from her grip; it clattered noisily to the floor next to his feet.
Daitona raised her hands in defeat; Sephiroth nodded to acknowledge the surrender then re-sheathed his sword. That done, he picked up her sword and stared as it shrunk back down to the size it had been before the spar.
"I admit, you're good," Sephiroth said, watching her out of the corner of his eye. "At first I thought your mistakes were accidental, but then they kept moving them. I never thought a strategy of mistakes would make such a good defense. You'll have to show me how to do that sometime."
Daitona nodded as he gave her her sword back. She replaced it in its sheath, then looked back to him not sure what to do.
"Come on, we've got to get down stairs now." With another nod, Daitona followed Sephiroth again down the stairs.
'At least we're not going up, but then again.we eventually have to go back up." Daitona cringed at the thought of having to climb all these stairs after what promised to be a hard days training.
"Don't worry," Sephiroth said out of the blue.
"Don't worry, about what?" Daitona asked while wondering if he knew her distress.
"We won't have to use the stairs when we're done today. As I said earlier, our trainer is running late and he forgot to give me the key cards I needed," Sephiroth answered.
Daitona sighed heavily in relief, then her look swiftly turned stern. "How did YOU know what I was thinking?! You can't read minds can you?!"
"I can read you eyes when you were thinking, you should see how much you give away when you're thinking." Sephiroth laughed at the somewhat stern expression turned to one looking for a reason to. "You're not going to push me down the stairs are you?"
"No, but I was thinking about it."
"I know."
They walked the rest of the way to basement level 2 in silence. Sephiroth pushed the heavy door open and allowed Daitona to go in before him; the door closed with a loud thud that echoed throughout the nearly empty room. It was spacious with a high roof. There was a few pieces of training equipment, and many heavy blue mats scattered the other wise bare floor. There were three other doors besides the one they came through. One, obliviously lead to an elevator shaft, but the other two had no indication to what lay beyond them.
The sound of metal sliding caught Daitona's attention almost immediately, as the sound seemed so loud in the otherwise silent room.
Sephiroth drew his sword knowing well what was to come, but not sure who it would be directed towards. Daitona was staring at him unsurely, but he couldn't just tell her, this was training after all.
Daitona wasn't sure of what to think of Sephiroth's behavior, but her attention was quickly averted to a sound behind her. She spun on her heels and instinctively went low, successfully ducking under the blade of a sword.
She dropped to the floor on impulse and sat low on her right elbow and kicked the man's feet out from under him. He fell hard a short distance form her.
Not caring weather or not he was getting back up, Daitona jumped to her feet drawing one of her swords all in one quick motion. The sword was already extended by the time the attacker was back up and swinging his sword at her. Daitona easily blocked it and reached down and pulled her other sword free. Almost immediately it was at the same length as the other.
The attacker was surprised by the appearance of the other sword. He was too slow to jump away as the new sword came down and ripped a path across his shirt. He got away without being wounded and put a fare distance between them.
'She's good, lots of potential as a fighter. She can think quickly and not may fighters can keep that amount of coolness,' he thought with a smile.
Daitona was crouched now in a lethal fighting stance. There would be no getting past her defenses now without getting hurt.
The attacker stood up straight with a pleased look on his face. He re- sheathed his sword then clapped. "Bravo. Guld taught you better than I thought he could. My name is Lavitz."
Daitona straightened and lowered her swords, but kept herself ready for anything. She didn't trust this Lavitz guy and didn't want to be caught unprepared in his presence. Sephiroth stepped past her.
"That was a lot different show of skill than what you showed me earlier,' Sephiroth commented looking at Daitona.
Daitona shrugged. Feeling a bit more comfortable she put both swords back into the confines of their sheaths.
****
-End Chapter 8-
A Test of Skill
Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy or it's characters, but anything outside of that.quite possibly does.
A/N: Sorry it took so long to get this chapter up, but no worries. Chapter nine is already started and will be up.VERRY soon. Enjoy.
The elevator doors opened to the 61st floor reveling benches, tables, trees, and people who were apparently slacking off to there jobs-in Daitona's eyes that is. Her eyes swept the room and her nose wrinkled in distaste. She hadn't been allowed on this floor prior to that day, but Guld hadn't showed up. The evening before, during another 'visit' to Hojo's lab, Guld's absence came to light.
'You will not be training with Guld anymore,' Hojo had commented.
Daitona had responded with the question, 'why'?
While going about his own business, not even bothering to glance at the girl he answered, 'because you have bested him and I have use for him yet. I don't need you killing him, so the only alternative is to assign a higher- ranking officer to your training. I trust you've enjoyed your day off today, tomorrow you'll be introduced to one of our officers in charge of training the SOLDIER recruits.'
'Oh joy, lucky me,' she had responded sarcastically.
'Trust me.it'll be interesting.quite interesting.'
Daitona sighed heavily and stepped out of the elevator into the lounge area. So far her new trainer had left an impression on her-a fool hearted slacker.just like the rest of these people. He was late and had sent a messenger to tell her to meet him on this floor. Now she was there where she was suppose to be and again the trainer was nowhere in sight. She hadn't even met the man and she already had a dislike for him.
She allowed her eyes to roam the area once more taking in ever detail, then studied the people who were wondering around here and there-some sitting and talking with other employees and some who seemed to be waiting or enjoying there solitude. It was then that her eyes belayed a familiar face, but not one she would have chosen for a second meeting.
'Mark,' her mind's eyes recalled. 'Mark?' 'Remember your attempt to escape?' 'That Mark, are you sure?' 'Are you denying your own judgment?' 'He hit me.maybe I ought to pay him back for that.' 'You won't have too.' 'Why not?' 'He's spotted you and by the look on his face he recognizes you too. He's on his way over here now.' Daitona shook her head successfully clearing her thoughts in time to be knocked down.
Mark leered down at her. She lay still recollecting her thoughts and senses, before she slowly brought herself back up to her feet.
Mark laughed. "Never would have thought I'd see YOU around here again. And you're as weak as you were then." He laughed again.
"That's what you think," Daitona growled.
A smile played across her face; if it hadn't been after her just being knocked down it would have been an almost friendly gesture. This smile however, was filled with content and so almost gave her an evil look.
With what training she had behind her, Daitona moved with such swiftness Mark never seen the blow coming. Her clenched fist made precise contact with his mouth, ultimately shutting him up for the time.
A gash on his lip bled from the blow, as did his nose. He spit blood from his mouth along with three of his teeth.
Before Daitona could do anymore, she was grabbed from behind. One arm around both of hers to keep her pined, and the other around her waist; she was lifted from the floor until only her toes still rested on the floor.
"Let me go! You're going the wrong way! He's going to get away.AGAIN! LET GO!" Daitona demanded when she knew her captor was moving back away from Mark.
"What did I tell you last time?" came the reply next to her ear; his voice was hushed.yet so familiar. After a pause he went on, "I told you to leave it be and to just calm down.well, maybe not in the exact words but still the same point. Wouldn't you agree?"
Suddenly in hit her and Daitona knew immediately whom that voice belonged to.
The arm holding her kept her in place until Mark had made his exit. When he was gone out of sight, Daitona was released. She slowly turned and the first thing her eyes caught a glimpse of was long silver hair. Looking up her eyes caught and held glowing green-blue eyes. The coldness in his eyes was startling, but in a matter of seconds his eyes softened.
He smiled at her and shook his head slightly. "You haven't changed one bit. Well, you are stronger, I'll give you that." Sephiroth closed his eyes and laughed softly. "Your accuracy has improved too, you didn't miss."
"Pretty big target, how could I miss it, and I should be better," Daitona said in indigence. "I have been learning how to fight after all. It's kind-of fun, ya know?"
"Yeah, I know. We should go get our sword," Sephiroth said turning slightly.
Daitona looked a bit confused. "Why?"
Sephiroth creased his eyebrows for a moment, before answering he let his face go back to normal. "Didn't Hojo tell you you were getting a new trainer today?"
"He did, and this trainer has yet to show up," she replied, trying to keep the annoyance from her voice.
"He's running late. I guess Hojo forgot to tell you we were going to training together for now on." Sephiroth shrugged. "I was sent up here to get you. We should be going now. We have a long walk to basement level 2, and we still have to get your sword and mine." Sephiroth had started towards the stairs with Daitona in tow as he spoke.
"Swords," Daitona corrected as they started to decent the first, of many, flights of stairs.
"What?" he questioned, and glanced back at her.
"You meant swords. I use two swords, not one."
"I see," Sephiroth said knowingly, with a nod.
The rest of the descend to the 38th floor was held in silence. Sephiroth took long, swift strides across the room to the cabinet where he knew his sword and hers to be locked in. Retrieving a key from his pocket he made quick work of removing the lock. He first took his sword and attached the sheath across his back. Daitona waited in silence as Sephiroth secured his blade then reached into the cabinet again to pull out a set of dagger-sized swords.
Daitona didn't question to as 'why' her swords were here; she simply took them from Sephiroth when he offered them to her. She slipped the belts around her wait then tightened the second to keep the swords from moving about as she moved. She pulled each blade about half way out from their sheaths then replaced them after a quick examination.
"Are you any good with those swords?" Sephiroth asked after watching the care she took on putting them on and checking them.
"I guess I'm pretty good," she answered looking up at him after she was sure the swords were secured. "My last trainer quit or got reassigned," she shrugged in indifference, "because I was better than him. I've been using these swords for a little over three months."
"Care to test your skills against mine?" he asked.
Daitona searched his face and eyes to see if he really meant what he had asked. There was nothing there to indicate he didn't mean it.
"Now?"
"Yes, and I assure you that if you can't defend yourself well enough I won't push it. I'll try not to hurt you." He paused and thought of an idea. "How about this, the first one to loose there weapon.weapons loses?"
"Ok," Daitona finally agreed with a sigh and took the sword she normally used in her right hand from its sheath; Sephiroth in turn took his Masamune from his back.
"You sure you want to use that short sword?" he questioned, eyeing the clean blade of the sword 'Moon' doubtfully.
"You'll see."
Before his eyes, Sephiroth was amazed to see the metal of the blade grow and extend to a fare-sized weapon.
"Impressive, I didn't know you had such powers," Sephiroth said smiling all the while.
"Comes with the territory. The sword already had the power it only takes some provoking to persuade it to do such things." Daitona gave the sword one last examination before she crouch into her fighting stance.
Sephiroth followed her move and did the same. Mentally he pointed out the flaws and weaknesses in her stance, he'd have to point them out to her later.
He waited for Daitona to make the first move; in doing so all the openings he had seen were instantly guarded. He was impressed, but at the same time he took note of the new flaws.then they were gone.
Sephiroth shook his head and did a double take as he carefully blocked her swings. 'She's doing it on purpose,' he marveled. 'A strategy meant to throw one off who is looking for any attack openings. She keeps you searching for the openings she purposely presents then moves.' His mako eyes glittered with the mood of this battle, he was thoroughly enjoying this fight. 'Now.to find her pattern, there has to be one, but where is it?.'
"THERE!" Sephiroth brought the Masamune up swiftly deflecting her sword, at the same instant dislodging it from her grip; it clattered noisily to the floor next to his feet.
Daitona raised her hands in defeat; Sephiroth nodded to acknowledge the surrender then re-sheathed his sword. That done, he picked up her sword and stared as it shrunk back down to the size it had been before the spar.
"I admit, you're good," Sephiroth said, watching her out of the corner of his eye. "At first I thought your mistakes were accidental, but then they kept moving them. I never thought a strategy of mistakes would make such a good defense. You'll have to show me how to do that sometime."
Daitona nodded as he gave her her sword back. She replaced it in its sheath, then looked back to him not sure what to do.
"Come on, we've got to get down stairs now." With another nod, Daitona followed Sephiroth again down the stairs.
'At least we're not going up, but then again.we eventually have to go back up." Daitona cringed at the thought of having to climb all these stairs after what promised to be a hard days training.
"Don't worry," Sephiroth said out of the blue.
"Don't worry, about what?" Daitona asked while wondering if he knew her distress.
"We won't have to use the stairs when we're done today. As I said earlier, our trainer is running late and he forgot to give me the key cards I needed," Sephiroth answered.
Daitona sighed heavily in relief, then her look swiftly turned stern. "How did YOU know what I was thinking?! You can't read minds can you?!"
"I can read you eyes when you were thinking, you should see how much you give away when you're thinking." Sephiroth laughed at the somewhat stern expression turned to one looking for a reason to. "You're not going to push me down the stairs are you?"
"No, but I was thinking about it."
"I know."
They walked the rest of the way to basement level 2 in silence. Sephiroth pushed the heavy door open and allowed Daitona to go in before him; the door closed with a loud thud that echoed throughout the nearly empty room. It was spacious with a high roof. There was a few pieces of training equipment, and many heavy blue mats scattered the other wise bare floor. There were three other doors besides the one they came through. One, obliviously lead to an elevator shaft, but the other two had no indication to what lay beyond them.
The sound of metal sliding caught Daitona's attention almost immediately, as the sound seemed so loud in the otherwise silent room.
Sephiroth drew his sword knowing well what was to come, but not sure who it would be directed towards. Daitona was staring at him unsurely, but he couldn't just tell her, this was training after all.
Daitona wasn't sure of what to think of Sephiroth's behavior, but her attention was quickly averted to a sound behind her. She spun on her heels and instinctively went low, successfully ducking under the blade of a sword.
She dropped to the floor on impulse and sat low on her right elbow and kicked the man's feet out from under him. He fell hard a short distance form her.
Not caring weather or not he was getting back up, Daitona jumped to her feet drawing one of her swords all in one quick motion. The sword was already extended by the time the attacker was back up and swinging his sword at her. Daitona easily blocked it and reached down and pulled her other sword free. Almost immediately it was at the same length as the other.
The attacker was surprised by the appearance of the other sword. He was too slow to jump away as the new sword came down and ripped a path across his shirt. He got away without being wounded and put a fare distance between them.
'She's good, lots of potential as a fighter. She can think quickly and not may fighters can keep that amount of coolness,' he thought with a smile.
Daitona was crouched now in a lethal fighting stance. There would be no getting past her defenses now without getting hurt.
The attacker stood up straight with a pleased look on his face. He re- sheathed his sword then clapped. "Bravo. Guld taught you better than I thought he could. My name is Lavitz."
Daitona straightened and lowered her swords, but kept herself ready for anything. She didn't trust this Lavitz guy and didn't want to be caught unprepared in his presence. Sephiroth stepped past her.
"That was a lot different show of skill than what you showed me earlier,' Sephiroth commented looking at Daitona.
Daitona shrugged. Feeling a bit more comfortable she put both swords back into the confines of their sheaths.
****
-End Chapter 8-