Chapter 38
Battle and Peace
Disclaimer: These things are getting boring…don't own don't sue; I'll kill if anyone takes my characters or the ones given to me by anyone else. Ask if you'd like to use them.
A/N: School has started and I have run out of time for the month…so as I said my updates will be every week now unless I'm at my dad's house but I'll hopefully always post more than one chapter. I'm working on three other stories besides this one though one of them is not posted yet, but you can check out the other two if you haven't already! Now on with the chapter.
Battle and Peace:
Daitona ran through the masses of soldiers preparing for the enemy. She was late and Sephiroth was already waiting for her. She finally found the general and Otto and came to attention snapping a hand up to salute.
"Sir! All the survivors of the troop have been taken to the medics and our walls have been barricaded to stop the advancing enemy. You're top rank here and we await your orders sir!" Daitona announced hastily.
"Wipe the enemy out. Show them what happens when you mess with us! You and Sephiroth have the say in this. My SOLDIERs will be ready if they are needed. I have faith in yours and Sephiroth's abilities. Now get to it!" Anton ordered.
Daitona sighed and took off back to the gates; an explosion nearly threw her off balance. The gates were gone and now the enemy was advancing through their forced entry. Daitona picked up her pace pushing through the ranks of soldiers and drawing out both swords just as she made it to the front lines.
Sephiroth's Masamune flashed in the late afternoon sun, reflecting the blood socking it. Daitona cut down the first wave of soldiers in front of her then followed Sephiroth deeper into the heart of the enemy. Now side-by-side the pair fought off any who stood in their way.
"Find their commander or general!" Sephiroth yelled to Daitona. "They'll retreat if you kill him!"
Daitona darted to the left impaling and cutting down dozens of Wutain's in the process. 'A lot of the generals like to just stand back out of the battles and let the soldiers do all the dirty work…what is this guy wearing that I'm looking…!'
Daitona nearly ran into the big burly man wielding a giant battle-ax; there was no mistaking that he was in charge by the pace of the orders flowing from his mouth. He hadn't noticed her yet so she backed off. 'Now what? He's huge…he could kill me just by sitting on me!'
'Get him Daitona! He can't possibly use that ax as fast as you can those swords,' Sephiroth's voice urged her.
Daitona sighed… 'Isn't this suppose to be your job? You kill the head honcho and I am all the defense? What's up with that?'
'They attacked up, kill him now!'
Daitona charged forward on the unsuspecting general and slashed him before he could dodge her blades. She used one sword for her own protection and the other sliced through the Wutain's arm. The Wutain winced at the sudden pain and swung the giant ax at the SOLDIER who had just attacked him.
Daitona jumped back out of reach of the ax. The General turned to her then let out a deep taunting laugh. "Shinra must be getting desperate! Their best is a little girl, I congratulate you though; you are the first to ever draw blood from me but sadly you won't live to tell about it."
"You're sadly mistaken you overweight fool," Daitona growled and stepped back into a defensive position.
"Got quite a mouth on you." The general picked up his ax and charged at Daitona. When he got close enough he swung.
Daitona dropped her pose of defense and jumped up ramming her feet back down on the ax causing it to lodge deep into the ground. She stepped forward on the ax handle and crossing her swords…then brought them apart.
The general looked at her in wide eye shock as the Shinra Officer jumped back away from him a good distance. He stared at her for a full minute before the effect of the attack took place. Slowly at first blood began too ooze out of his neck in a straight line. His dark brown eyes rolled into the back of his head as his body fell backward and his head rolled some distance away. Daitona's swords had completely decapitated the man.
The Wutain soldiers around at the time decided that this was a dangerous place and sounded the retreat. Daitona, now in the midst of her battle mood continued to cut down any Wutain who happened to get too close.
Sephiroth heard the call for the retreat, but it was quickly cut off but the retreat was being sounded everywhere. 'Daitona must have killed him already…he must have made her mad…'
Sephiroth in the same state as Daitona then, continued to cut down the Wutain's also. Any Wutain who exited Chatawa's walls was killed. The SOLDIER's and cadets were on the attack and running them out.
The blazing afternoon's sun sunk deeper into the western sky and cast eerie glows over the corpses that littered the area around the fort. The enemy had been severely wounded, but then again so had the Shinra forces.
Daitona found her way through the field of dead bodies making sure that she didn't step on anything and being sure they were all dead. She found Sephiroth wiping his blade clean near the damaged wall of the fort.
"Are you ok?" Daitona asked softly coming up behind where he sat and wrapped her arms loosely around his neck.
"Yeah, I'm just fine. How about you?" he asked turning his head slightly so he could see her out of the corner of his eye.
"Could be better but I'm fine…that guy was huge! He was like eight feet tall and the fattest guy…besides President Shinra that is-that I've ever seen! And he was butt ugly too!" she plowed on. "You should have seen that ax!…he tried to cut my head off…but I got his first!"
"You cut his head off?"
"Uh-huh." Daitona nodded. (A/N: Couldn't you guys just see Daitona pulling the guys head out from behind her back or something?)
Sephiroth sighed as he slid his sword back into its sheath then reached around pulling Daitona into his lap. "You got a little nervous out there."
"Well…it's been a while since we last had to fight the enemy last. I was ready and everything but when I saw that guy…he was huge then he taunted me. But I showed him!" Daitona nodded satisfied with herself.
"Yes, but getting nervous like that can cause mistakes and mistakes now will probably cost people their lives. You'll be ok now, won't you? No more getting nervous?"
"It wasn't my fault…so how is everyone else? We didn't loose too many in that explosion did we?" Daitona asked.
Sephiroth shook his head. "I called everyone back from the walls because I knew the bomb was there."
"Oh, I see. Well, I guess we better go make sure that everything has been taken care of." Daitona pushed herself off his lap then helped to pull him to his feet.
Once they had talked with Otto they found out that there was a minimal amount of causalities on their side. The few soldiers that had made it to the safety of the fort were in bad condition and none of them could tell them what had happened.
Fort Chatawa was put on high alert while the damage caused during the attack was repaired. It took three weeks to fix the wall and during that time there was no word from any other Shinra troop and no sight of the enemy. During that time, when not on guard or look out duty the SOLDIERs and cadets spared and got lessons from the upper ranks.
Sephiroth was worried about Daitona's nervousness in the last battle and thought it was from the lack of practice so their sparing became more frequent. He discovered that her moves were a bit sluggish but in the months that started to pass that flaw vanished and both of them started to build skill level.
Two and a half months after the attack word finally came that the fleet of ships with the new troops would arrive within a week. The fort had since went back to standby but with this news the security was beefed up once more but none of the officers had to worry about the simple duties such as lookout and guard.
The nights before the arrival of the new troops, the two youngest officers spent them together because after they left there would not be any time for them to have any real time alone.
The troops arrived in the early morning hours, and by the time the sun came up the new orders had been given out. On top of that, Commander Miguel finally arrived with the news that several other general's had been killed so again Daitona and Sephiroth were boosted up ranks.
"Well…General suits you but I never even thought about becoming one…" Daitona scratched her head and looked at the badge she had pinned to her SOLDIER dress clothes. "Two silver stars…I'm a two star general…a Major General and I didn't even do anything."
"Are you complaining?" Sephiroth smirked. "Just think of the perks, people will run away from you now because everyone recognizes generals. What more, I'm at the same rank as Otto…though that's kind of weird…but two known generals traveling together, now with a respectable troop backing them…they'll run home crying for us to leave them alone."
"Commander Miguel is lower rank than us now so why is he trying to order us around?" Daitona took a bite of the omelet she had in her hand, breakfast on the run was always a pleasant thing for her.
Sephiroth snickered as a sizable chunk of the omelet fell to the ground and she almost stepped on it. "You better hurry up and eat that. I have a feeling that this mornings meeting is going to be important…"
"They're probably just going to kick us out of here finally and tell us to go to some fort we've already passed," Daitona grumbled then attempted to shove the half eaten omelet into her mouth as they walked into the building where they officers were to meet.
General Anton took one look at Daitona's cheeks all puffed out and a little bit of the omelet still sticking out from between her lips, and he started to crack up laughing. Sephiroth smiled and shook his head; at least he knew the general wasn't mad at them for being late again. It always seemed when he came to these meetings with Daitona they always ended up late somehow or another.
"Are you two ready to get out of here or what? It must have been really boring being held up here waiting for all those months. Well, your new troops arrived today on that ship that you two no doubly saw on your way here. I have given them the day to rest and tomorrow you will move back to Fort Dal'fa. Commander Zante is having problems with the Wutain's there and will loose the Fort if help doesn't arrive. I heard you two have a chocobo, so I want the two of you to get there as reinforcements within the week. Otto will bring the troops in and will be there within three weeks."
Daitona sighed. "Is that all? I really don't like riding chocobo's…"
"Then you can go with the troops and only Sephiroth will go ahead," Anton shrugged, as it really didn't make too big of a difference.
Daitona chewed her bottom lip…she didn't want to stay behind but she really didn't want to have to ride on the back of the chocobo all the way there either.
Sephiroth glanced at her. 'You're not really going to stay behind are you?'
I don't want to ride on the back of that bird all the way back to that fort.' Daitona frowned and gnawed at her bottom lip until it became red.
'Is that all…I'll let you ride on the front…I don't want to leave you here, there's no telling what you might run into on the way to the fort…'
"Sir, is it still ok for me to travel with Sephiroth? I think it would be better if we work as a team," Daitona stated.
"Sure, I was hoping you'd stay together because you two make a killer team. I trust that the troops really won't be needed there by the time you get there," Anton nodded.
"We'll prepare for our leave today and will be gone by morning sir," Sephiroth saluted along with Daitona.
"Very well, you two are dismissed and have no further orders today. Take anything you need and good luck."
****
Sephiroth woke up at about four in the morning the next day. He was still tired but there were things he had to do and sleep wasn't one of them. Without waking his wife, who was lying right next to him, he got out of bed and went to take a quick shower to wake himself up. He left the bathroom door open hoping the light might start waking Daitona up peacefully.
He came back out towel drying his hair and Daitona was just starting to stir in her sleep. Sephiroth looked at her then continued to the dresser where his battle uniform was clean and ready. Only his pants and socks were in the drawer. He sat down in the chair that was at the desk and pulled on his knee high black socks then pulled on his pants. Then came his boots that he pulled up until they came over his knee then buckled the metallic strap just below his knee then the one just above his knee. The soft leather extended just a bit higher up his thighs.
There was no need to put his coat on just yet, Daitona wasn't even up yet so he stood and walked to the side of the bed. He ran the tips of his fingers softly over Daitona's cheek. She slapped at him and pulled the blanket up over her head. Sephiroth snickered a bit and continued to pester her. He lay down on the bed next to her and pulled the blanket up over him so that he could see her underneath.
A devilish grin touched his lips as he reached forward and grabbed her waist. Daitona's eyes flew open at the sudden touch and she let out a startled cry. Sephiroth laughed as he continued tickling her to no end. Once she realized it was Sephiroth, she quit trying to hit him and tried to squirm away.
"Oh no you don't! You won't get away that easily," he laughed and pinned her down continuing to tickle her relentlessly.
"Sephiroth…stop," Daitona gasped.
He did and bent down kissing her instead. Her reaction insured that she didn't have any hard feeling about her 'wake up call' that morning. He pulled back and looked down at her.
"Good morning."
Daitona yawned, stretching her arms over her head. "Morning? Its still night, how long have you been up? You've already taken a shower because you smell good."
Sephiroth grabbed her wrists gently in one of his hands and bent down kissing her again; she squirmed not liking being held like that. He laughed softly then rolled onto his back brining her to rest on top of him.
"I haven't been up all that long. You should shower before we go too. It may be a while before you'll get another chance," Sephiroth stated softly as if he knew everything to come.
"Umm…I guess that sounds good." Daitona made no move to get up. Instead she laid her head against his chest and closed her eyes.
"You're not going to like it if I have to put you in the shower," Sephiroth warned.
"Oh fine, I'm getting up."
****
-End Chapter 38-