Chapter 34
Ha-ha, I Win
Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy or it's characters; all OC's are mine besides some names…you'd think everyone would get the point after 34 chapters.
A/N: So, did anyone check out that story I mentioned way back in some other chapter? (Don't remember witch but it wasn't that long ago.) By Inazumaryu…story is called An Angel's Wish? Anyone, anyone at all? I know Juzu read it and I think she enjoyed it. There are only two chapters, but it's not finished, and it's really good. I'd really like you all to at LEAST check it out. If you don't like it fine you don't have to read past the first chapter, but if you do like it make sure to review it, review it even if you don't like it. Please, please, pretty please, I'll give you all a cookie. (Juzu, shut up…because they don't know.)
Ha-ha, I Win:
Unprofessionally, Daitona stuck her sword into the soft ground at a slant then began stretching out her muscles thoroughly. 'Hey Seph, can you still read my thoughts?'
'Appears so. Is there something wrong?' Sephiroth's voice penetrated her mind.
'No, not really…but there might be a surprise for you here when you get back.' Daitona smirked and began another sort of stretch.
'Why do I not like the sound of that?' he asked warily. 'You're not going to kill them are you?'
'That's entirely up to them,' the thought was smug but there were no traces of her kidding. 'You see,' she continued, 'they don't think I'm any good because I'm a girl. I'll fix that real quick and put them in their place.'
'Good, but try not to kill them; Tseng's there too. He didn't do anything to you so keep his well being in mind too; he did and still can help us.'
'Yeah, yeah; don't start lecturing me now or I might just change my mind.' This time her minds voice gave way to the taunt so that Sephiroth knew she didn't really mean it but he wasn't about ready to push it.
'Fine, I was just warning you…' 'Sephiroth…?"'I have to go; I think I might have just found our four legged furry friend that I'll invite to dinner tonight. Take care, I'll be back soon.' With that said the presence of Sephiroth's mind concentration broke away and Daitona focused on her job at hand.
After a few more stretches she was thoroughly satisfied with her work out and grabbed the hilt of her word and yanked it easily out of the ground. She brought it up near her face, much the same way Sephiroth does, into a ready position.
"I'm ready now, so if the first one of you will step right up and the other wait over there with Tseng." She motioned with her head to where Tseng stood now a good distance away.
Gabon smirked and stepped up while the higher ranking SOLDIER backed off to observe. He didn't think this would be much of a fight from the show of skill the officer had put on moments ago, she didn't even look like she was concentrating on her actions there for a while, while she stretched.
"Watch yourself," Santee hissed into Gabon's ear as he moved back to sit with the Wutain boy.
Gabon raised his broad sword and stalked around the awaiting female office, as a tiger would do its wounded and bloodied prey. Gabon picked out a number of openings and weaknesses in the young officers defense, but just to pick one. She was watching him, only moving as to not let him at her back, her sword was still held high and unyielding to the weight pulling in back down.
Gabon smirked and went for the weakest point in her entire defense. He stabbed at her midsection only to have her sword swing swiftly and knock his off target. She spun on her feet unsteadily as if the movement had knocked her off balance; Gabon took the opportunity and stabbed and swung at the clumsy officer several times.
'What the hell?!!' Gabon thought angrily. Though she looked completely off her game he couldn't seem to land a single blow to her. 'Must be a fluke. I'll get her…'
He clenched his teeth and sped up his attacks, finally Daitona quit moving and jumped back away from him some distance with a silly smile on her face.
"What are you smiling about? Or do you realize now you can't beat me?" Gabon smirked.
Daitona shook her head in amusement. "No, that's not it at all; I made myself a little dizzy there. As for you being better than me…" Daitona looked at the small glowing orbs she now held in her hand. "Your materia isn't even mastered and what kind of SOLDIER doesn't carry around some kind of healing materia?"
Gabon gawked at the officer. "Ar-are those MY materia?" He quickly checked his equipment and sure enough…a good portion of his materia was missing. "But…HOW?"
Now Daitona smirked. "Just because I'm sloppy about what I'm doing doesn't give you the opportunity to drop your guard. I've been through the entire SOLDIER training too, remember? They don't pass people out of sympathy, they'd be even less kind to a girl." Daitona closed her fingers over Gabon's materia then tossed them to his feet.
"Gabon," Santee called sternly. "Sit down, I want to give this a try now."
"1st class SOLDIER's turn now eh? Then come, and do your best. Fair warning, don't let down your guard like Gabon did, I could have done a whole lot more than just stolen his materia," Daitona warned.
'And I don't doubt that little miss. I've seen that technique used before and it will not work against me.' Santee smirked as he passed the retreating Gabon, and then took his place in front of Daitona.
"Tell me this, why do you carry two swords and only use one?" Santee asked.
"Tell me, is that a wise thing to tell you?" Daitona replied.
"No," Santee admitted as he checked over his armor. "But I was just curious to know."
Daitona shrugged and stated the obvious answer to them. "In case I drop one, you seen how off balance I can be sometimes…and I tend to drop this sword sometimes." 'Ok, so I'm not entirely lying and who ever said I had to tell them the whole truth anyways?'
Santee drew out his sword. It was double-edged and was made a few inches longer than the normal double-edged sword.
"Are you ready now?" Daitona asked lazily and itched her head with the tip of her sword.
Santee shook his head; she would not make a fool out of him…He raised his sword up into a ready stance. Daitona brought her sword up to mimic his stance.
This was a stance taught to a certain school of swordsmanship, if he really knew how to use it's techniques to the fullest…he'd be the first person since Sephiroth that would be a challenge to her. She knew the style of fighting though she had just recently acquired it and really hadn't had time to master it or to even improve upon it.
Daitona suddenly narrowed her eyes. "Cheep shot SOLDIER boy. I've see this style before, where's your other sword."
The look in Santee's eyes was one of which a person would have after being smacked. This was the art taught in his hometown and very few people outside the town knew anything about this style of fighting.
Carefully he edged a long bladed dagger from his boots sheath. Daitona nodded.
"And yours?" Santee asked coldly. He was beginning to think this officer had more to her than first met the eye.
Daitona patted the sword she had not drawn from its sheath as an obvious answer.
"Draw it," Santee growled.
"Really? Are you sure? I'll guarantee you'll wish that I hadn't," Daitona warned.
"Draw it."
"Fine, you don't have to me mean about it." Daitona reached down to her left side and pulled her other sword free of its sheath. Like the other one, it grew in size until they were both the same length. "Don't say I didn't warn you…"
Daitona dove to the side then twisted away as Santee tried for a head shot then stabbed at her with his dagger. She stopped in a low crouch. 'Idiot.'
Santee's eyes flared angrily. The mako all SOLDIERs were infused with giving him an eerie look. In the past he had used this to intimidate his enemies but this officer didn't look fazed in the least.
Daitona straightened and took on a line of defense. There were a few obvious holes…and no weaknesses. Santee thought nothing of it until she began to move as he did. The holes in her defense covered and new ones appeared and just as quickly were gone again.
'Lets see if this idiot can get through this technique…even Sephiroth found it hard the first time I fought him and since then I have become much better.' Daitona lifted one of her swords high and swung it at Santee while her other gave the illusion of the holes in her defense.
All Santee could do was block her blows, he hadn't prepared himself for an attack like this and he had never seen one like it before. Her eyes glowed in a hypnotizing manor and suddenly he found himself held back by the edge of one of her swords to the neck and the other at his stomach. Her defense at that point had no holes he could pick out, even if there were he couldn't do anything with out risking injury.
"Admit your defeat," Daitona commanded.
"Watch out!" Tseng yelled when he finally got the gag out of his mouth.
Daitona growled shoving Santee back and jumping to the side clear of Gabon's blade. She had been so busy fighting Santee she hadn't see the fight between Tseng and Gabon in which got Tseng tied up.
"This is suppose to be a spare, you were NOT to interrupt," Daitona growled. She knew this had gotten out of hand and someone was on the course to getting hurt.
"It's more than that now officer," Santee sneered. "There is no way any one person could defeat the both of us even if you ARE an officer."
"Is that a fact; you two are a team?" 'Fine,' Daitona thought. 'I'll prove them wrong once and for all…this isn't going to be easy anymore…'
****
It was the beginnings of night when Sephiroth got back to camp with some huge chunks of meet. Daitona was sitting near Tseng talking and the two SOLDIERS'…
Gabon sat alone looking thoroughly beaten. He had a few cuts and a lot of burses and his clothes were ripped, bloodied and dirty. Santee sat a way from the others looking worse than Gabon. His hair was matted with dried blood and he was still tending to several nasty looking wounds.
Sephiroth turned his gaze to Daitona. "Well?"
"I've discovered that trainees for Turks are Jerks." Daitona shrugged and brought out a bag to set the meet Sephiroth carried onto.
He sat it down the cleaned off a sharp knife to start cutting steaks. Sephiroth frowned when he seen an object lying in the dirt next to the bag. He reached over and picked it up while asking, "what's this?"
Daitona looked at the object then looked around and stopped when she found one of the SOLDIERs. "Santee, I think Sephiroth just found one of your fingers!"
"That's it." Sephiroth stabbed his knife down into the meet and look at Daitona. "What happened?"
"It was our fault sir, we deserved what she did," Gabon replied.
"You better believe it," Daitona added.
"Well, I'm waiting for an answer." Sephiroth crossed his arms waiting.
"She beat us fair and square sir…one on one and two on one…we hurt her first…" Gabon stated slowly.
Sephiroth's eyes turned cold. "You what?"
Daitona snorted and held her chin high. "That jerk over there tried to cut my head off but settled for cutting my shoulder. That's when he lost that finger in your hand and part of another. He's luck I didn't out right kill him after that."
"So he is." Sephiroth returned to cutting the meet up then putting it over the fire to cook. He then reached into his pocked and pulled out three apples and began peeling them.
Daitona took one and helped.
After dinner Sephiroth checked over the two SOLDIER's wounds then the cut on Daitona's shoulder. With another healing spell it closed up entirely and didn't even leave a scar. The whole while she grumbled about how it had been a cheep shot; he had no doubt about that.
"So, did you like dinner?" Sephiroth asked after he had finished healing the cut.
"Yeah." Daitona nodded for extra emphasis. "It was really good, thank you."
"Good, now I've got a question." Sephiroth unbuckled his cape/coat and sat it down beside him then showed her his upper left arm. "I know what the strips look like when they form…but this isn't a stripe."
Daitona took a hold of his arm with one hand and ran her fingers over the markings with her other. She frowned. There were two circles that went entirely around his arm and within the bands were strange shapes and symbols. Between the two bands was one shape that Daitona did recognize. She took her fingers away from his arm then and ran them over the tattoo she had gotten a long time ago just behind her right ear.
"It's that tattoo…" Sephiroth frowned.
"I got that tattoo because it had looked familiar to me somehow even though I had never seen it before that time," Daitona explained.
"Huh…that's weird. I thought you got it because you wanted to make Hojo mad."
"And he was."
Sephiroth laughed softly. Hojo had been furious when he had caught site of that little marking. He had put a tattoo of a #1 on Sephiroth arm and was going to put one on Daitona also but decide not too after finding she already had one.
He shook his head. "My tattoo #1 is gone also."
"Don't miss it do ya?" Daitona teased.
"No, it was ugly anyways. These markings are much more pleasing to the eyes. Now I don't have to worry about covering that dumb tattoo up and I can wear the vests like you do," he said as a matter of fact-ely.
"Ahh, no," Daitona stated dully. "What's wrong with your cape/coat? I thought you liked it?"
"I do," he said simply and pulled out a huge sheet of paper from his traveling bag. "Its just it gets hot sometimes you know?"
"Tell me about it." Daitona handed him a pencil.
"All right." I got a good look at Natic while I was out." He sketched a shape that would stand as the fort. "There are guard towers right on the front." He drew five guard towers from the angle of where they were to go in, and then explained that the two sides were the sides of two mountains. "We can't get in from there, because of the danger of the mountain. It's very steep and has a lot of loose rock; we'd be found out before we got anywhere near their defenses."
"Ok, but then that means we have to face the guard towers, how was the defense there?" Daitona asked the information she'd have to know; it was always her job to break the first defense.
"Each guard tower on the side has five, then the second ones in has four then the one in the middle has three. The wall between is lined with artillery. So there are probably about fifty of them to add to the ones in the towers. There is a city on the other side of Natic…" he paused and waited for Daitona to make the decision.
"We'll call it city Natic for the time being," she decided. "We'll leave the city, but any resistance will be dealt with quadrangle. Sound fair?"
"Yes. Now, inside the fort…"
Daitona and Sephiroth went over their plans late into the night until finally everything was settled and planed out to their liking. Then they slept…
****
-End Chapter 34-
A/N: Gosh this story is turning out to be longer that I thought it would…oh well, as long as you all like it it's fine by me. School starts soon so my updates will probably start taking a little longer…every other day to every three days. After the next chapter or 36 some time is going to pass…maybe, because this stuff is becoming boring to me and in the last chapter where Sephiroth purposed to Daitona…that sounded so corny I was thinking about dropping the whole idea and rewriting the entire chapter over again, but then all you guys say you like it so I guess I'll leave it be.