Me: I must be some sort of idiot to think about abandoning this. It's almost been a full year too. I am very sorry. I will update this story but not with one, but TWO chapters :D Italics is flashback. Bold is Paine's thoughts only.
Disclaimer: Blah blah. Don't own. Blah. Yeah you get it.
Chapter 4:
SOLDIER.
Paine didn't know how she ended up agreeing to Hojo's suggestion. But here she was, in a slightly big cadet gym uniform three days later running beside Cloud Strife: Zack's friend. She was relieved to know that she had a couple of classes with someone who is a familiar face, since recently the famous first class SOLDIERS and Zack have been constantly by her side. And Cloud was always with Zack. It was a bit weird, let alone suspicious.
There were rumors going all around that Paine was Sephiroth's sister, and that she was dating Genesis.
People tend to enter scenes at the wrong time.
Two days ago, Paine simply wanted to relax after training personally, since one was not accepted into SOLDIER immediately, she had to strengthen herself. Hojo wanted to continue testing to see if she was up for it. She wasn't the first female cadet, nor the first female to try for SOLDIER. And for that, she was glad. Last thing she wanted was attention for being a female in military unit for men. She was lounging on a couch in the lobby, staring out the window at the industrial city of Midgar.
Genesis had popped out of the blue, calmly reading LOVELESS. She had become quite curious and asked what the play was about, since it was constantly in Genesis's hand, if not in his pocket. He immediately jumped at her question, slightly irritated that she did not know of the play. Next thing Paine knew, Genesis was holding her hand and recited his favorite line. He was of course doing it to show her the raw emotion of the play. Unfortunately, everyone else around them didn't see that.
She was bombarded by a group of infuriated fan girls the next hour. She tried her best to tell them that how could she possibly date someone she met only a day ago and even ended up snapping at one of them. They had none of it and Paine had to end up finding shelter in Sephiroth's office. His reaction was a simple raised eyebrow before going back to his paper work.
"Why were you being chased?" He had asked after ten minutes of silence. Paine had been reading a SOLIDER manual to keep herself busy. She slowly raised her head and responded with a dead panned voice,
"I'm apparently Genesis's girlfriend." And the conversation ended there. Sephiroth didn't have to comment.
Paine was brought out of her thoughts when she saw a fellow cadet fall in front of her. She momentarily hesitated in her running along with Cloud who had the same thought as her. But when they heard the death threats from their Drill Sargent, they immediately changed their minds and picked up their speed.
As Paine and Cloud neared fifteen laps, the Drill Sargent started to become merciful and told everyone to have a two minute water break. Paine groaned as she tugged at the collar of her gym uniform. It felt heavy and the sweatpants weren't helping either.
Cloud was lucky that he was able to wear a Shinra logo tank top. It were times like these where Paine hated her breasts. The Chocobo haired cadet tossed her a water bottle and she nodded in thanks, her throat too dry for her to speak. It wasn't as if she were out of shape, she was still in her warrior dressphere. It meant that she was dependent on her brute strength and had the agility to only doge. Not run for thirty minutes straight. She cursed at the long laps. She looked up at the clock on the far wall.
"Fifteen minutes left of class." She mumbled. She heard a soft grunt of the blond teenager. He didn't speak much since he is shy, but from his facial expressions and some sounds, Paine was immediately able to read him.
"Alright you weaklings! Do as many laps as you can in the last fifteen minutes we have!" The Drill Sargent, who Paine decided to call Douche bag, barked out. Paine drank out of her water bottle until it was half empty and set it by her towel.
"Come on Chocobo." Paine sighed and was met with Cloud's annoyance at his nickname. She chuckled and began to run, with him right by her side. His small figure helped him out with his agility, making Paine slightly jealous.
It only took five minutes of running for Paine to decide that she should use her thief dressphere next time.
AAAA
Genesis chuckled beside Angeal as he stared at Paine's face while she ran from behind the glass.
"It seems we finally have something in common. She hates running as much as I do."
Angeal snorted at Genesis's remark, "You always did complain more than run."
"Cadet training was a joke!" The red haired warrior defended himself. "I really don't see as to why we had to do it."
"We didn't know how to become a SOLDIER once we were born, Genesis," His friend reasoned. "And we were only in it for two weeks."
"Two weeks, too many. Hojo and Lazard decided too slow," Genesis scoffed. "Sephiroth didn't even have to go through cadet training."
Angeal only sighed knowing that if he commented, Genesis would go into a full rant.
"Paine is really interesting though." Angeal was amused at how quickly Genesis changed the subject.
"How so?" He questioned, looking at how Paine helped Cloud keep up after the blond haired cadet slightly tripped over himself.
"Did you hear how she reacted when my fan girls practically attacked her?" Genesis sounded as if he were close to laughing.
"She hid in Sephiroth's office for two hours, right?" Angeal shifted in the green chair he currently occupied.
"Not only that, she practically chewed off one of the girl's ear." That brought the two SOLDIERs to chuckles.
But then Angeal immediately realized something a second later, "You have yet to deny that she is your girlfriend."
"I like to play games, Angeal." Was the only response he got when the rapier user stood up and left the room.
AAAA
Paine thanked Shiva for the fifth time at the fact she didn't have a roommate. She saw how her fellow cadets were running to their dorm rooms, most likely going to fight over the shower. Her timetable told her that she had a thirty minute break before going to her next class, Sword Wielding.
It took the silver haired warrior fifteen minutes to take a hot shower and change to her regular cadet attire. She stared longingly at her leather outfit before quickly massaging her shoulders. She sat on her slightly uncomfortable green bed and gently picked up her sword.
She understood the basics of mako, but it still managed to confuse her. She wondered if the mako would change her other dressphere weapons. She would have tested that theory out, but the last thing she needed was to have people banging at her door wondering why she was having a rave party. She snorted and rolled her eyes.
She really did hate the bright lights of changing between dresspheres. Speaking of her dresspheres, she checked under her mattress and counted how many were there.
"Good. All here." She mumbled. The last thing she needed was Hojo experimenting on more of her prized possessions. If he took these away from her, she'd feel incomplete.
She checked the hideous, gray clock on her painted white wall to see that she had ten minutes left of break. She decided that she could use these ten minutes to figure out her situation, and to possibly get out of it.
'Alright so, that damn bastard sent me to a world where Spira is a fairy tale and yet the all details of my world aren't in the supposed book.' She laid back on her scratchy, but warm sheets. 'I have to find that book, and fast. Maybe it will give me an idea on how to get back home. Screw adventures. I'd rather be annoyed by Rikku than be stuck in a place with a bunch of pollution.'
She was startled when she heard a knock at the door.
"Hey Paine, since our next class is on the other side of the building, we should start heading there now." Cloud's soft voice was heard through the door. Paine had to strain her ears to hear him.
The warrior regretfully placed her beloved broadsword in the closet before leaving her dorm room. Cloud had previously told her that she is unable to use her broadsword because cadets weren't allowed their own weapons unless they were personally trained under a First Class SOLDIER, or in advanced classes. Paine vowed that she would fulfill the latter, since she really did not want to train under Genesis(She didn't need anymore rumors), Angeal(He was already training Zack and she didn't want to be a bother), Sephiroth(She would just spend the whole day trying to knock Masamune out of his hand), or a complete stranger. Even though the classes she had experienced in the early morning, Basic Materia(She almost mistook them for movie spheres), Summoning History(She was damn surprised when she saw that absolutely anyone could summon), and Agility Training(The torture that ended twenty five minutes ago).
"Alright." She opened the door and began to follow Cloud, since she had absolutely no idea where the beginner sword training room was.
AAAA
When Paine first saw her teacher and how much of an asshole he was to her in the first ten minutes, this class was definitely going to be her least favorite.
He had given her the lightest, and probably dirtiest sword that was on the sword rack. She had stared at it in disgust, and began to grow irritated at the smug look on her teacher, Sargent Turner.
She had grown bored as he taught the basics on how to swing, and how to block. Paine remembered being told that cadet training for this year had started three weeks ago, so why the hell were they still on this subject?
And she sighed when Sargent Turner decided to use her as a training dummy. His sword was far heavier and stronger than the piece of crap tin foil she had. He would occasionally make her land on her back when she tried to deflect.
"You should pay more attention, Paine. Maybe you wouldn't keep falling." He sneered. She scowled and stood up. She chose to say nothing since he had more power over her. One bad thing and she could end up on the streets of Midgar.
"My apologies sir." She spoke through clenched teeth. When she returned to the line of cadets, glaring at those who sniggered, and stood on the right of Cloud. She felt a tug on her left hand's pinky, something Cloud would do to calm her down. He was slowly finding his own place in Paine's heart. He reminded her too much of Yuna.
"Alright find a partner and start sparring. Take turns being offensive and defensive," The ginger hair asshole of an instructor barked at his students. Paine dreaded his next words. "Don't think about sparring with Paine, Strife. She's with me."
Paine was thankful that her paragraph of curses stayed in her mind, "Can I get a better sword?" She asked with an emotionless mask.
"Oh but Ms. Paine, the sword you have here is the best. But sure, go ahead." He mocked her. 'Oh that son of a bi-'
"Thank you." She scowled and headed towards the sword rack. Only a couple were left and she noticed that one of them resembled her broadsword but it wasn't an exact match. She smirked and exchanged the swords, giving one last glare to the dirty excuse of a weapon.
"You're going to be offensive." Paine smirked at his command. 'Get ready for a beat down.'
She caught him off guard by immediately charging, but he managed to quickly defend himself. Paine jumped back and charged again, making it seem as if she were going to swing her sword to the right. Turner raised his sword to defend his right side, only to be startled that Paine had tricked him. She quickly changed her sword position and was ready to strike his left side. She smirked when the tip of her sword was at his neck, she could practically feel the anger radiating off of him.
She heard a groan on her left, and turned to see Cloud on the floor with his partner laughing down at him. Her moment of distraction was enough for Turner. He moved from the tip of the sword and pushed it aside roughly, causing Paine to stumble. He swiped at her legs with his right foot, causing her to crash to the floor. Her sword sliding away as he stood over her as the victor.
"Detention." He smirked down at her, smug at her seething face. Turner left the girl on the floor as he went to look at the other cadets, praising some and scolding others. Paine didn't get up from the floor, currently watching Cloud try to regain his pride but to fall back to the floor. His partner walked away from him most likely to make fun of Cloud's embarrassment to his friends.
Paine sighed and stood up, walking to her fallen Chocobo friend. By looking at his face, Paine could see that Cloud was chopping off limbs in his mind. She snorted and helped him up. He mumbled a thank you as he angrily stared at a group of boys who were sniggering at him.
"Ignore them," She grabs his chin and made him look at her. "They aren't worth your anger. Come on, spar with me." She went over and grabbed her fallen sword. By the time she went back to Cloud, his anger had left and it was replaced with a sad smile.
"I'll be defensive." She raised her sword to block herself. They were like this the whole class occasionally switching roles, ignoring the cadets around them and the smirking Sargent.
Paine had not realized that she had gained a small amount of respect from a certain silver haired General that watched the whole entire situation.
Me: I hope you liked it. Please review (: