Things were fairly routine in the time leading up to Wutai...Everyone was hyperaware of the situation, but no one was gearing up to go there yet. There had been a number materia hunters found dead, not too unusual, it was a dangerous job...But when company geologists looking for mako sources had gone missing, and diplomats that had been sent to negotiate a search ended up poisoned...Well, things got tense, and eventually escalated. The only wonder of it was why Shinra didn't send in SOLDIER from the get go. It certainly took the man long enough to realize that ordinary troops weren't going to be enough to subdue Wutai! In the meantime, they were utilizing SOLDIER as a stopgap for the troops they sent there...Large and or problem monster hunting and other things the troopers had done still needed doing. The years before they started sending SOLDIERs to the front were almost pleasant for the most part, barring my little screw-up.
Good gods Mr. Zuri! Where on earth did you dig that picture up from?!..Yes, it's a mugshot...well, I've already told you how I ended up in the army in the first place...What, more pictures?...Oh my goodness, band photos! Gods that hair was scary...huge and shocking pink! Oh yes, that one's from the victory ball after Wutai...Why, thank you! Yes, you are correct about the dress, it is a designer original...No, I bought it myself. Oh good grief Mr. Zuri, use your brain! It would have been a display of the worst sort of favoritism if the general had bought it for me! No, I got it nearly two years before that picture was taken. Ugh!..That's that inveterate, stinker Hojo lurking in the background...You're damned right I had a grudge against him..Yes, even back then. He was a class A pervert for starters. Well, that all started before Wutai, as a matter of fact it was the same time I got that dress that I had the first run-in with him...The very day after my screw up, in fact. I wonder now if he didn't have a spy in the ranks, to make him think that I might even consider disloyalty.
The next morning I woke up late, having slept like the dead! Looking back, I was truly exhausted, mentally, physically and emotionally...It was when Shinra began shuffling SOLDIER personnel all over the continent into army positions, while they were beginning troop mobilization for Wutai. I found a note from the general, with a list attached, suggesting I take a couple of days and make a run into Midgar to pick up some equipment for the dojo from central, and that I get new uniforms, as they were becoming too loose for regulation fit. Well, if he'd noticed my uniforms getting looser, I knew they must look pretty baggy. If you looked at my fellow aides, it wasn't uncommon to see a bit of spread after a while...All the time we spend sitting at a desk will do that to you. But helping out with the training had really gotten me into fighting trim! Good thing too, as it happened...Anyway, new uniforms! It's a rule somewhere that they never have the right size, even for the guys. It's a screaming pain in the butt to get them out of central in proper sizes, especially if you're a woman, and nearly impossible if you're any rank above lieutenant! Officers are responsible for the purchase and maintainance of their uniforms, and part of our pay was supposed to cover the cost of normal replacements. But as I was thinking of the long term, and saving pretty much every scrap I could...Well, you can't stay in the army forever, and unless you're a general, the retirement pay is lousy! Part of me still remembered the little girl who arrived in the slums with little more than the clothing on her back. I was determined to never be in that state again, let me tell you!
Yes, I was a bit of a miser, and getting them retailored was considerably cheaper. It left me more in my savings...and a little for shopping!..and believe me, there's nothing like a little retail therapy to help with the mental hygiene!..Yes, I enjoy shopping, even if I don't buy a thing...I guess it's something about seeing shiny new stuff in the shop window, and knowing that I can actually buy it if I really want it. Though, I only really splurged on music, naturally. You can be tough and professional, and still remain feminine...everyone else seems to forget that. I headed down to the wall market, to a tailor's shop that I knew fairly well...they not only did alterations, but they also did some of their own designs. I stopped in to talk with the guy who ran it, Old man Cho as he was called, the best tailor in the sector, possibly in all of midgar, and the bluntest, most tactless man on the planet! Which was why his shop was in the wall market instead of on the plate. Tasteless rich people, especially if they are President Shinra's latest mistress, don't appreciate being told they're tastless, and express their displeasure with old man Cho by blackballing him, and chasing him off the plate...The ones with thicker hides and better sense still made their way down to the wall market to buy from him!
If you had to go into the slums, wall market was the safest place...Troublemakers just tended to dissappear, one way or another, and nobody wanted to piss off Don Corneo by disrupting his trade.
I went to the Tailor's shop to get a rush job on the alterations, and ran into Cho's then teenaged daughter Angelia instead of the old man. She gave me a peculiarly intense look, sizing me up, and said "Yes, you are the one..You'll be perfect!...Daaaddy, come here a minute please!" She bounced with enthusiasm while I stood there kind of bewildered and more than a little unnerved, wondering if she hadn't gone crazy, old man Cho walked out from the back of the shop, and said to his daughter "What is it Angel?..Oh miss Kyruk! What can I do for you today?" he never gave me my proper rank, but from him I didn't mind it. "I need these uni-".."Daddy! She's perfect!" Angel interjected before I could finish my sentence. "The burgundy and cream!" she said in an urgent tone as I stood there looking blank. Anywhere else, it would have been rude, but I was used to it from old Cho...I knew she didn't mean any harm by it.
Old man Cho comes up and takes my bundle of uniform parts, lifts my chin with his finger, looks at me, this way and that..and says "hmph, you'll do very well indeed...alterations on these?" "Yes sir" I said, thoroughly spooked, and slightly miffed by that point. "Good, you were beginning to look like a refugee from the rag bag, the way these unis were sagging!" he scolded...You see what I meant about tactless?..You know that little voice inside, the internal editor that tells you when you're saying something rude that you really shouldn't? He didn't have one. I couldn't get too angry with him because at least he was always honest. "DAAAD!" Angel howled, outraged on my behalf. "It's ok" I told her.."I sort of expected him to say something like that...Even the General noticed that my uniforms don't fit anymore, and he just doesn't usually pay attention to things like that." I said sheepishly. "I'll do these alterations for free, if you'll let my daughter play dress up with you for a couple of hours" Mr. Cho said. It sounded like a good deal, and not really that unpleasant, so I nodded my somewhat bemused agreement. "Daaaaad! you make me sound like a ten year old kid...Either that, or some kind of pervert!" she squawked indignantly. "She is right, you would be the perfect model for the design she's talking about." he said while grinning fondly at his child. "go ahead, she doesn't bite, hasn't since she was about four anyway."
"Right this way miss Kyruk." she chirped. "Call me Ana'e..and you are?" I asked. "Angelia Tali-cho." Yes, the famous clothing designer Talicho, before she was famous. "I must have somehow had you in mind when I designed this gown, because there is not a single other person in this city that it would fit!" The dress she had me try on was incredible...dark burgundy at the bottom of the full skirt, shading gradually up till it was cream colored around the middle of the bodice, shading to a medium red, just to the burgundy side, again on the upper portion. Silk woven with subtle patterns all through the fabric and sparkly crystals sewn in to the patterns, long form fitting sleeves, slightly daring off the shoulder neckline. It fit like a glove, it didn't even need the hem changed! When she began to show me some of the gown's secrets, like the outer skirt that converted to a cape, and the concealed pockets, I knew that she was absolutely prescient. I am unusually tall and long limbed for a woman..My sister used to tease me about being a spider when I was a kid..Even General Sephiroth was only a couple of inches taller...Yet the dress fit perfectly!
It was surprisingly flexible and strong material, it had hidden pockets, just the right size for a couple of discreet daggers, or my little long range pistol, and the long part of the skirt was removable in a fight, converted to a little cape, or as she pointed out, you could go from formal to club in seconds. She steered me over by a full length mirror, let my hair out of the usual bun at the nape of my neck and swept it to the top of my head in a sort of sketchy updo, slid a couple of sparkly red and white crystal clip combs in, and fastened on a matching necklace and a sort of headband that came to a point with a ruby red drop in the middle of my forehead, and turned me around to face it. I swear, my own mother wouldn't have recognized me. Even without makeup, I looked like an elegant woman...and for the first time I didn't feel like it would be a liability. I asked the price, and blanched a bit at the figure she named..I could swing it, but... She followed by naming a figure about half of that, on the condition that I tell anyone who admired the gown where I'd gotten it. I explained that there weren't many occasions where I would wear it, but she said that I'd need it someday, and insisted I should take it at that anyway.
By then her father had finished my alterations, and knocked on the dressing room door asking if we were decent. Angelia replied that we were, and as he walked in and saw me, his jaw dropped, and he started swearing and said that if he was twenty years younger, he'd...well he got kind of graphic, enough to make me blush, and I'd been around twenty-something year old bachelor boys for several years! But when Angelia started making gagging noises at him, and repeating "What would mom say?" in an increasingly shrill voice, he apologized and said "You realize you have yet another way to leave a path of devastation behind you, warrior lady..in the form of broken hearts." And as I tried to protest, he said "Just consider my reaction representative of the rest of the healthy male population." Huh..he was such a dear old fart. "You, Mr. Cho, are a dreadful old man!" I said, wondering if it was possible to overheat from blushing. He whooped and went off crowing "Huzzah! I've made it to dreadful old man! Now I can be senile and crotchety instead of just nuts!" all the while. I understand now what he meant, but at the time I joined Angelia in scratching my head, wondering if he'd finally gone off the deep end! That dress, well...I just had to have it!..I bought the gown ensemble, and it did come in handy a bit more than a couple of years later, after the Wutaian war...Yes, even us warrior types want to feel pretty once in a while...Besides, who can resist the idea of being heartbreakingly beautiful at least once? I left for central kind of walking on air...maybe that's why I didn't sense Hojo in time to avoid him...
It was when I made the trip to central supply that I met Hojo for the first time. There was nothing on the outside that would suggest the kind of monster he'd turn out to be. He wasn't even bad looking for his age. I know many women would have called him handsome even...but there was something ruthless in his eyes...something heartless that made me want to run away screaming. I was waiting behind him to hand in the paperwork and arrange for the supply delivery. He handed the clerk his papers with a sneered instruction to not mess it up this time, took that strange stooped posture with his hands behind his back that I guess he thought looked intellectual or something, and whirled around to walk out...He ran headlong into me. He reeked of nasty chemicals and the filthiness of his labcoat, and gave off a vibe that gave me the creeps. He looked surprised for a moment, then seemed to recognize me...he must have known who I was from a file somewhere. "Excuse me sir." I said politely as I moved a few steps out of the way...and I hoped, downwind. I'd seen the tag that said he was lead researcher, and if he was in central, it meant he was a high ranked company scientist. Ticking one of them off was a good way to end your career...at the very least, so I stayed polite and ignored the fact he was staring at my chest. I stepped up to sign off on the paperwork, dismissing him from my mind, and the bastard goosed me. I gasped in outrage and whirled..."Please keep your hands to yourself sir! Such behaviour is offensive." I said with all the ice I could muster in my tone. He smirked and left. I completed my orders and went back home. I found a message waiting from the General with another to-order list for central, and the news that he'd be in the field with the trainees for several days longer at least. They'd been called in on an emergency monster infestation that was just too large for the locals to deal with it. It ended up being a month and several days...the critters weren't that large or difficult to deal with alone, but apparently they formed very large packs to harrass the towns. It seemed that every time I had to go to central after that, I'd see him there, but he didn't try anything till about half a year before they sent SOLDIER, the General, and me, as I was his staff, to clean up the mess in Wutai. I went to central to requisition some replacement harness for the General and some of the other SOLDIERs who were out in the field with him, and ran into Hojo for the second time.
The bastard ambushed me in the narrow street between central and the train station and got me caged up against the wall. How? I suppose I could have beaten the crap out of him with fair ease, but it would have landed me in the stockade for several years, if I was lucky. He just wasn't worth that. He knew that through simple logic. I think he knew I was afraid of him, and used that fear to pin me against the wall...Either that, or he thought my self defense skills were limited to what I'd learned in basic training. He told me who he was in nauseating detail, and after revealing that he knew who I was, tried to pump me for information about the General, and in the most condescending manner possible. There is no way in hell that any self-respecting aide de camp would reveal any kind of personal data about their officer...in fact, we take an oath not to do so except as required by a full court-martial. He was whispering obscene suggestions and his hands were getting personal again the whole time. I lost any qualms about getting rude. I pushed him away hard and had the satisfaction of seeing him land flat on his rear! He immediately started calling me every name in the book...miss bitch was the politest phrase used, and began making threats. I cut him off by pointing out the fact that not only had he attempted to press me into breaking my officer's oath, he'd also been making unwanted advances, and the company tended to take a dim view of such behavior. He got to his feet..."It'll be your word against mine bitch...and who do you think they're going to believe?" he said as he took a step toward me. I put up my hand in a stay away gesture. "Keep your hands to yourself or I'll break your fingers!" I snapped as he laughed. "Who're they going to believe, bitch?" he asked again..and in that moment I spotted movement overhead..I was never so happy to spot a security camera in my life! "I think they'll believe the security camera footage." I grated. He looked up and spotted it.."Congratulations, you pass the test!" and similar chocobo dung in an attempt to cover his ass...He was pouring on the charm...and if I hadn't sensed the seething rage beneath the smiles and flattery, I might have fallen for it. I couldn't stand his greasy personality for more than a few moments...I turned and started to walk away in the middle of a sentence. "You bitch!" he spat after me...well, I guess I had to have the last word, cause I couldn't resist spitting back over my shoulder "That's major Bitch to you." I left him there sputtering in incoherent anger. I didn't let myself start shaking till I got home. I went back to doing paperwork and typing up reports, and promptly forgot about it in the chaos of deployment.
You are one of the priviledged few who know everything about that incident now...I believe that the only people who knew were Hojo, myself, possibly then vice-president Rufus Shinra, and General Sephiroth...Of course I reported it to him eventually! The only reason I didn't do so immediately is that the general was out of contact for nearly a week after, on a top secret mission with the trainees, and when he came back everything turned so chaotic that I'd forgotten about it...In truth, I didn't really want to remember...Hojo scared me spitless, and I wasn't sure why! Now I have reasons for my fear of him, but at the time I had just my instincts, and didn't know how much Sephiroth hated him. I only remembered it much much later, in the thick of things. It probably set my dislike of Hojo in stone when forgetting to report the run in with him became a reason for the General to doubt my honor and integrity, if only briefly.
I typically went on campaign with General Sephiroth unless the mission was planned to be less than a week or so long, or very top secret, though I wasn't supposed to be involved in the fighting. During the war, we were out in the field a lot because initially, they sent regular army units to the front from wherever else they'd been stationed, smaller SOLDIER units were often sent to replace them. The first campaign was something of a failure..it ended in a stalemate after 4 years...Then the president got the idea of sending 'the great general Sephiroth and his elite SOLDIER corps' to lead the second Wutai campaign...Mostly to appease the public, whose loved ones had been fighting and dying the whole time. The most memorable incident for me was also how I met Jair in the first place. It was fairly near the beginning of the second campaign...we hadn't been there much more than a year, if that. The SOLDIER training had been suspended during the last portion of the first campaign, the trainees sent to various military units...The General set about regathering them, planning on having some of them act as support troops for the full fledged SOLDIER troops. It took a while to track them all down, and once they were briefed, redisperse them as needed throughout the army...Many had become the essential officer corps of the regular army after their normal officers had been killed in combat. The qualities that make a good SOLDIER make for good leaders, especially in fast moving or difficult situations!
The general started his campaign with a bang...He laid siege to and destroyed the only major city besides the capital in Wutai...It's a place that is no longer on the map, though you may have heard of it...it was called Nu-ri-suryene, a name that means "Gates of the Treasured West" in wutaian. It wasn't what you'd call a pretty place, though the views from it were spectacular. It had been built as a fortress, and was widely held to be impregnable. General Sephiroth took it in a week. He let one last caravan leave the city before he surrounded it...and believe you me, that caused a heck of a ruckus among the other generals and senior staff! What if it they were going for reinforcements? What if the reinforcements were already in the hills somewhere, and the caravan was a resupply and warning for them? The General had sent a SOLDIER scout, and knew it was no such thing...It was only most of the women and all the younger children who had lived there. I personally heard him tell the troops that though it was an order from higher up to capture or kill all such caravans, that as far as he was concerned, they didn't need to be in any hurry to do so...because as he put it, "We are not here to fight children." That was one quote from the battle of the Gates, as it's called, that never made the newsies, let me tell you! As it turned out, there was indeed a small force of troops encamped a ways away, but in entirely the opposite directoin the caravan had headed out. The destruction of Nu-ri-suryene is the reason for half of his reputation for ruthlessness. I have to respect their bravery, even as I view it as a waste of lives. They fought him to the last man, refusing any quarter, and when defeat was inevitable, they killed the few women and teenagers left in the fortress, then themselves...The last man set off demolition charges that brought the entire city down, leaving nothing the enemy could use. No, in fact he didn't order nor cause the destruction of the fortress. They did it themselves to deprive us of a percieved toehold. "Destroyer of cities, Avenger of Fallen Troops" sounded better to the bloodthirsty masses than "They blew up their own city to keep us from taking it", I suppose. The General's wisdom saved a large number of the army there too...If they'd pressed on in when the defenses were obviously weakening, instead of pulling back as he ordered, they'd have certainly been caught in the falling buildings and walls.
The incident I was talking about began really after the main body of men had gone out, the small Wutain reinforcement troop flanked the fighters and launched a surprise attack on our primary camp. I had no choice but to put my self defense skills to work..as the enemy seemed to focus on the medical tent and the General's command tent, probably after the spare materia and documents in it. After making sure the documents were secure, I had no time for anything more than hack and slash. The battle wasn't a long drawn out affair, but it was bloody. An enemy swordsman made sure I didn't come out unscathed, and he left a shard of poison materia that broke out of his blade in a shallow slash across my ribs, before I brained him...at the time I thought it was no more than a scratch and decided not to bother the medics with it as they were busy trying to save lives and repair the damage to their surgery tent..I slapped a bandage on and went on fighting. By the time the troops arrived to reinforce the camp, half of those who had defended it were either dead or dying, and another quarter were severely wounded. Many of the dead were technically non-combatants, orderlies, pages, medics, and aides like myself. The wutaians hadn't discriminated. I thanked the planet and all the gods that General Sephiroth had made sure I was well trained, or I'd certainly have ended up captured or killed.
I was feeling a bit odd, and had tossed my cookies a couple of times..You do that you know..at least after the battle when you realize there are people all around you whose insides are on their outsides, and in some cases splattered all over you. It's really only a worry when you no longer feel sick after a battle...I thought it was just normal post battle nausea and fatigue, till the General arrived back at his tent. He finished reading a short report he'd recieved from the scout units, and then commanded me to report on the status of the camp. As I did so, my voice started slurring more and more, and I began to have difficulty focusing. I was shivering and leaning on my axe to keep upright, when he interrupted me towards the end with a scowl and ordered me to "Sit down before you fall down". I did so gratefully, as my knees were shaking by now. "Why haven't you had that attended to?" he growled. "What sir?" I said having forgotten all about my wound. He pointed at my side where a bit of bloody bandage was showing through the slice in my shirt...I hadn't noticed the blood dripping from under my shirt. "Jus' a scratch sir, I didn wanna bother the medics with somethin so silly." I felt a tingle as he cast a sense spell on me.."Your "scratch" is bleeding profusely, and you've been poisoned..didn't you know the Wutaians use poisoned blades"? he said. I was by this time losing control of my emotions and getting more irrational by the minute. I said something to the effect of "Those sneaky mothering assholes! Let me at them!" or something similarly rude and idiotic as a wave of dizziness and a sudden flash of irrational rage swept over me. He stalked like a prowling cat over to where I was sitting..'Gods help me, he's so damn good looking...Bah, foolishness!' I thought distractedly, as he reached down and grabbed the bottom edge of my uniform shirt, "you are correct about the medics" he said, "there isn't a single one in camp that has a scrap of magic energy left now..even the esteemed doctor Ornari is exhausted.." and began to pull off my shirt.
My mind wasn't functioning right at all..The poison combined with the pain now beginning to seep through my adrenaline haze had an odd effect. I totally mistook his intentions. I was completely dazed by this time, I forgot everything except the fact that he was male, and far stronger than me..I felt a sudden rush of unreasoning fear. I began to curse and kick him and started swatting ineffectually at his hands. He grabbed my hands, and pulled them around to my back, and tied them there with the revenants of my shirt, yanked off my boots, pulled off his sword belt and strapped my legs down as well, came back around the chair and slapped me gently in the face to bring me back in focus, and explained calmly, in words you'd use with a frightened kid, that he was just going to treat my wound, and to stop acting like a silly child. I still wasn't able to even recognize him. At that point I had bit of a breakdown..I started weeping and cursing and feeling totally terrified and embarrassed...I'm just glad he decided to ignore my behavior at that point, because I wasn't in control of my mouth at that point. Normally I trusted him totally, I just somehow couldn't figure out who he was for bit. It was like he was someone else, some enemy, for a short time.
He figured out that it wasn't simple contact poisoning when he cast a poisona spell on me...It had little effect but to temporarily clear my head enough to recognize him, but I sagged a bit in relief as he pulled up a camp stool and medkit, and stripped the now bloodsoaked bandages off. He began to press at the sides of the slash..now the damn thing hurt! I winced, and he snapped peremptorily at me to hold still...His tone penetrated even the poison haze and I apologized then immediately complied. I held myself totally still except for the occasional tremor I couldn't completely control as he found what he had been probing for. He grabbed an antiseptic and anaesthetic spray from the medkit.."This is going to sting a bit" he said neutrally. Boy did he have a gift for understatement! I barely managed to turn my yowl into a snarl as that stuff seemed to burn the germs out of the wound.
I glanced up at him with blurry eyes, gasping for breath, sagging in relief as the anesthetic began to take effect, and quickly closed them as I was unerved by the avid look, almost one of pride, I thought I saw on his face as he was watching mine..It was almost as if he was enjoying my pain, or maybe my endurance of it...I dismissed the idea as foolish because when I next opened my eyes his expression was normal again...I should probably have heeded my instincts...A bit of advice..never get in the way of a warrior fresh from a battle, it's suicide. On the last edges of battle madness, it's possible he did enjoy the pain. Battle madness makes the insane sensible, and turns the horror of killing into a thing of beauty..I remember my first battle madness..How slow everyone else seemed to move, how I was entranced by the incredible beauty of a spray of blood droplets coming off of my axe as I sliced through a man's torso on the battlefield, the sweetness of his scream, and how good it felt to unleash the rage I felt, that I had contained within me for years...I was violently ill later, after the battle, sick at heart and mind as well as body, but in that mad state, it was exquisite. The amount of rage I know he kept contained every day, the fact that he didn't lash out and randomly destroy whatever crossed his path... His sense of honor and self control, which matched and surpassed his physical strength, was the only thing that made Sephiroth kill cleanly, quickly, and only when necessary.
He reached into the wound with a pair of tweezers, and extracted a pea sized shard of shattered poison materia, which he sealed in a vial and sent off via runner to the medics as soon as he finished. He also fished out a couple of tiny fragments of bone that had shaved off my rib, and cleaned the it with a pack of sterile water. He surprised me by drawing on a sphere of mastered materia from his bracer, and casting an esuna spell on me..a sensation like being plunged into icy cold water followed by a moment of barely controlled nausea, and I was thinking relatively clearly again. I had expected perhaps a vial of foul tasting antidote, or a potion to carry me till a healer could attend to me. He selected a prethreaded needle from the medkit, and quickly closed the slash with a few well placed stitches, finishing just as the anesthetic was wearing off..
"There" he said as he applied a new bandage."That should hold till a doctor can see to it properly in the morning." he said coolly. "Wow! I have a brain again! Thank you very much sir. I'm honored that you would tend to me yourself"! I said shyly..No, I knew he had some medical training, because it's part of SOLDIER training. They were often sent on well-publicized search and rescue missions...But I didn't know the sheer extent of his, nor that he'd waste the mage power on someone who was a nominal noncombatant. He gazed appraisingly at me and said "Good aides are difficult to train..especially those who aren't also spies set to watch me..You aren't a spy, are you now little aide?" he said with one hand on my chin so I had to meet his eyes, which seemed to be trying to bore a hole in my skull, the other resting lightly on my bandages. "No sir!" I replied firmly before I thought it through, then I remembered the incident with Hojo. I could tell that he knew something...and then with a little grimace I admitted "I was approached by a man the last time I was in upper Midgar..one who appeared to be a doctor. some greasy..person..named Hojo, but he was wearing the filthiest lab coat I have ever seen, or smelled, A while ago...Shortly before you returned to Midgar after that last skirmish. I was frankly insulted by his...offer.. I meant to tell you, but haven't had time, with all the preparations for this operation.. Do you want me to pretend to take his offer when we get back sir?" I asked not hiding my dislike of the idea. "I might...Why didn't you take him up? Most of my former aides accepted his, or another's offer..what made you refuse?" he said quirking a skeptical eyebrow at me. I flushed and glanced away.."..Or did you truly refuse?...Answer me." he commanded as I continued to try to evade him. He began to put careful but painful pressure on my wound as I kept trying to duck my head. "You WILL tell me." he said, his eyes glowing with suspicion, anger and distrust. I suddenly remembered the stories I'd heard about two of my nastier predecessors...That they'd dissappeared in the heat of battle. It would be really easy for me to meet the same fate if I didn't come clean immediately...besides, the idea that he mistrusted me so was just as painful as the pressure of his hand.
I should have told him immediately, not telling him had made him suspicious. "Look at me, and answer the question!" he said, increasing the pressure and I gasped "Ow sir!" in protest, and finally capitulated. "It's not that I don't want to answer sir..It's just..I, I'm just so damned embarrassed...He got handsy, for starters and, and, said some, some..disgustingly inappropriate things..and then giggled, like an insane child when I threatened to break his fingers! When I checked him out to see if he really was who he claimed to be and to see if I needed to report him..I found out more than I ever wanted to know sir, just in the open paperwork! He has the ethical standards of a swamp zolom..no honor at all..his assistants tend to "disappear" on a regular basis...especially the female ones...And he scares the hell out of me!." I blurted out flushing with disgust. "What? More than I do?" Sephiroth said with cool amusement. "Yessir" I said, meeting his gaze again.."Quite honestly, I've never been very afraid of you, I respect and trust you too much to be afraid sir. Maybe that isn't altogether sensible of me...But you've only given me the feeling that you want to beat the crap out of me when I screw up. I know that Hojo wants to dismember me and put me back together wrong, repeatedly, just to see how I twitch...I'm not just afraid of him, I'm terrified!" I admitted miserably with a shudder I couldn't suppress.."He regards people as no more than objects...or subjects for his experiments..Sir...he is a pervert with power, and if there hadn't been a security cam, I don't believe he would have taken 'no' for an answer without considerable force behind it." I said, shaking with the memory, and post battle reaction. "Perceptive of you..Next time don't wait till you are under duress to answer me..You need not feel too embarrassed to bring this sort of thing to me. I will keep your confidences as you keep mine." he chided, releasing my chin. "Yes sir, sorry sir". I muttered still feeling vaguely embarrassed, for having not told him.
"Umm sir?" I said a few minutes later. "Mmm?" he said appearing deep in thought. "Could you untie me now?..I feel kind of chilly sitting here all umm..hanging out." I said blushing...I was getting goosebumps on my goosebumps, in the most unusual places! He said after a moment "Oh, of course.", and he leaned forward and reached around me, apparently having no idea what effect his proximity was having on me..my head was still not completely clear, survival instinct and hormones..I could feel his body heat where his arms were reaching around my shoulders and through the fabric of my bra where his chest brushed against me, the rumble of his voice as he said "It's good you were honest with me, little aide...I wouldn't want to have to damage you to obtain the truth. I'm not angry at you for not telling me earlier...the chaos of our sudden disembarkation for this continent obvously delayed your recall." into my ear as he tugged on the knots that were restraining me, his breath stirring my hair...it made me delerious! I felt dizzy, and my heart began to beat faster. I was also sensing his bloodlust from the earlier battle..in the state I was in, it's no surprise I mistook it for the sexual sort. I wondered idly how he always knew when I was telling the truth..I instinctively knew better than to lie..could it be empathy?..contact enhances empathy...then I realized his fingers were also brushing pulse points on my neck when he was holding my chin..he was monitoring my pulse and eye dilation...just like a lie detector!
"I wouldn't have done it anyway sir" I said tentatively. "Spied on you I mean, or anything else so dishonorable.. I'd even refuse a direct order to do so, it'd be unethical. I want you to know that...I regard your privacy as a point of my own honor. Hojo, or anyone else, wanting a spy can kiss my cracked ass!" I said, giggling at my own cleverness, and feeling peculiarly warm all over, as though I'd been drinking. "Such language!" He said, with an amused air as he brought my right arm around to finish untying the knots. "Sorry sir, it's just how I feel." I said blushing, feeling my blood boil at the touch of his hands on my ankles and calves as he released the belt holding my legs. And then as he started to rise, I couldn't stop myself, I felt like I was on fire...I impulsively reached up, put my arms around his neck and kissed him, passionately, winding my hips against him. I must have surprised him, because for a second or so he did nothing..then, abruptly I felt his palm press against my shoulder, and as I resisted, my bandaged ribs, causing a pain so intense I passed out for a split second. I gasped and collapsed back into the chair wimpering, with tears on my face as he loomed over me with an expression of barely controlled anger on his face. "Games little aide?" he snarled in outrage. "I don't play games in my own chain of command." he spat. "And you know better!" he growled as I cowered away. I. I, I'm s, sorry sir, i,it won't happen again, I d,don't know what c,came over me!" I stuttered, nearly as startled and completely horrified at my own behavior as he must have been. For the first time I was truly afraid of what he might do to me, still on the edges of battle.
He reached again for my bandage, and I flinched away with an involuntary wimper. "Hold still you little fool!" he snapped irritably. "I am simply going to make sure your wound hasn't reopened." he said acidly. I couldn't keep from shuddering as he glared at me while his hands were gently peeling back the bandage. "You are fortunate the stitches are still intact" he said in a tone as cold as the northern continent. "If they had ruptured I would have had to resew them, and I am out of anesthetic. Drink this." he said and handed me a foul tasting antidote and glared at me till I drank it down. I shivered again, mostly from the cold of the evening air, and the blood loss I had sustained...only mostly, because I have no doubt he would have carried out that threat. He noticed the shivering. "Here, put this on." he said in a moment, calmer as he tossed me a robe.."I'm afraid your uniform is ruined" he said, having averted his eyes. "Thank you sir, I think I have a spare or two in my tent." I said shakily, as I shrugged into the robe and tried to stand up..tried and failed, miserably. I fell back into the chair panting, and dizzy. And as I caught my breath, he came over, took hold of my arm, and pulled me to my feet. He slung my right arm over his shoulders, reached around me and grasped my other elbow to support me and helped me the few yards to my tent, as I continuously apologized for my weakness. "I don't know why you put up with me sir". I said meekly. "Self preservation little aide. I would have to do my own laundry and paperwork, or worse yet I would be stuck with one of those moronic chatterboxes the other generals have for an aide." he replied as he lowered me onto my cot. "Thank you so much sir, I'm sorry about...I didn't mean to be so presumptuous...I really don't know what I was thinking!" I said trembling with eyes downcast. "I meant no disrespect sir." I said, feeling as if I were dying of shame. "If I thought you had intended disrespect, you would be in the stockade, not here...we will speak no more of this." he replied flatly. "A doctor will be here in the morning to cast a proper cure, and see to it that you are fit for duty as soon as possible...in the meantime"..and the last thing I remember as I felt a tingle of magic was a blanket dropping over me, and hearing his voice compelling me to sleep.