Laguna rode up and down the ranks of Knights, he'd already inspected all his sub-commanders and there was very little else he could do aside from hope that they'd done the same thing with their captains and that their captains had followed suit with their lieutenants. Sometimes he missed being a rank and file cavalryman. The three diamond wedges pointed towards the gorge, overlapping at their outer tips to provide a continuous wall of armored flesh. He hefted his lance, stroking Baast with his free hand as he wheeled the black around yet again he reached the center formation and backed Baast into the ranks.

He looked up behind him to see the King had ridden out, he always admired the big golden bird that Ansem the Wise rode, and she was a real piece of work. He hoped to someday breed Baast with her, see what came of a pairing between a speed demon like that, and a war bird like Baast. Julia teased him that he was more interested in chocobo husbandry than being an actual husband, which he felt was unfair, he was just very devoted to his work. Thinking of Julia made him smile, though it was a sad smile, he remembered waking up before dawn that morning and donning his under-armor before going to the barracks to get fully suited.

Seeing the tears in her eyes had not been easy, nor had kissing them away; it had simply made it harder for him to leave. Knowing that Tifa would be joining this battle did not make it any easier, he didn't know what he would do if any of his girls were hurt. He knew that despite his avoidant and distant nature Cloud would protect Tifa, but no where in a battle was there such a thing as safe. The stamp of thousands of feet drew his mind back to the gorge before him and he swore as the first ranks of Heartless marched around the rise ahead of the Knights.
Somewhere behind him he saw a flash, he turned to see one of Cid's flares going off, a moment later the earth shook and he swore as he and every other Knight gripped their reins and tried to calm the terrified animals. There was no denying though that Cid's weapon did damage. It landed in the midst of the advancing Heartless and shattered their formation, granted they closed the gap instantly, but how long could they keep that up? A second shot tore through the ranks a moment later and he was pleased to see that it took longer this time for them to fill the hole. Maybe this would work.

That was when the piercing shriek echoed throughout the sky and he felt ice grip his heart as a winged Heartless rose over the gorge, if the sun hadn't been behind the Knights, Laguna was certain that this beast would have blocked it out. A third shot echoed and Laguna cheered with the rest of the Knights when the round hit the Heartless, the cheer turned to shouts of outrage when the monster plowed through the explosion without so much as a scratch; he watched as it flew towards the Knights and braced himself, this was going to hurt, he just hoped he'd have enough Knights left to lead a charge.

Then another savior appeared, a black dragon rammed into the Heartless and the two began twisting in and writhing, locked in combat in the sky each trying desperately to slaughter the other. He smiled grimly, if she'd let him, he'd have to buy the scary witch a drink after this. There was another flash from a flare and he turned to see the two blue flares that signaled the attack, he raised his lance high.

"For your King, for your Land, for your Families, charge!"

The shout that rang from his throat was joined by hundreds more voices and the collected war cries of hundreds more chocobos as the three wedges charged, lances lowered and armored arms raised. The Heartless had stopped marching and Laguna watched as they closed the distance in seconds, the first rank rose up to meet him and he watched as weapons and armor shattered and were pushed aside under the force of the charge. The first rank broke, and they were through to the second but there were still dozens of ranks beyond, their work was only just beginning. The momentum of the charge kept them going through the second rank and into the third, and there the charge finally stalled.

Lances were dropped and swords, axes, maces and casters were drawn. The clash of metal rang all around, intermixed with the snap and flash of casters and the hisses, screams, and shrieks of the combatants. Laguna took the head off one Heartless which bumbled around like a headless bird before it melted away, thankfully the armor was weak. Apparently Xehanort didn't have much of an inventory when it came to arming and protecting his army and that was something at least. Something grabbed onto his shoulder plate and lifted him off his saddle, he swung up and cut the offending flier's leg off, sending himself plummeting to the ground.

Baast stood over him, clawing and snapping at the surrounding Heartless as he picked himself up, raising his blade to block yet another attack. The massive black chocobo shrieked in rage and fury and the Heartless around them faltered at the ferocity of the pair. Taking a breather as the Heartless gathered for another attack he looked around him and winced, there were very few Knights left mounted. That was neither good nor bad but it would mean precious time would be wasted if they had to remount. The Heartless began pushing again and Laguna fell back with the other Knights, then there was a crash above their heads and human, chocobo, and Heartless looked up to see the giant winged Heartless crashing into the gorge from above. Its massive body fell in amongst the Heartless, sealing off part of their army.

A cheer went up as two dragons dove out the sky and raked the ground with lightening and fire, sowing further confusion in the Heartless ranks.

"Elites!" Someone shouted.

Laguna turned to see the black uniforms advancing, he smiled, remounting Baast and waving his sword over his head.

"Knights fall back!"

Those that could remounted and those that couldn't simply ran, the Heartless saw this as an opportunity and rushed after the retreating soldiers, as Laguna passed the Elites he spied Sephiroth.

"Took your sweet time," he shouted.

Sephiroth merely eyed him with a blank stare before continuing towards the oncoming Heartless. As one the Elites stopped in their tracks, Laguna pulled Baast to a stop and turned him around, interestingly enough he'd ended up directly behind Tifa's unit.

"What do you think?" He heard Leon ask.

"I think," Cloud replied. "If there was one or two more I'd have a problem."

"Well those will be the one's I get then."

"Oh, you're fighting too? Well there won't be a problem then."

He heard Tifa laugh, "men," she scoffed, and Laguna couldn't hide his smile despite the dire situation.

The Elites raised their arms and he watched as if in slow motion as they spoke in one voice, "oblivion!" and a wave of white snaking light fired off from their fingers and tore into the oncoming Heartless who scattered under the barrage.

"Alright, let's get the bastards!" he turned towards the voice and saw one of Sephiroth's sons, Kadaj he thought, it was hard to tell with the triplets sometimes, rush forwards. The other Elites followed suit and Laguna rallied the Knights to join the charge as well. He bore down on the backs of the Elites and at the last possible instant he pulled Baast back, the chocobo squawked, pulling at the reins and jumping, spreading his wings and sailing over the heads of the charging soldiers and landing in amongst the Heartless. On either side of him more Knights landed in the midst of the Heartless and began cutting their way forwards. Baast reared, and threw Laguna as he fell. Clambering to his feet he turned to find a spear imbedded in Baast's chest, tears stung his eyes and he turned to hack and slash at the Heartless holding the spear, battering the armor into a pulp with the shrieking Heartless inside.

"Commander!"

He turned to see the girl from Traverse, Petria pushing her way towards him.

"Your blue?"

"She's fine; I couldn't remount her in time."

He nodded, looking at Baast's corpse bitterly; it was almost as bad as losing Julia or one of his girls, almost.

"Oh god," she murmured.

Laguna turned and swore as three giant Heartless rose from the ranks and began advancing, tossing Elites and Knights this way and that as they came. One Elite was tossed towards Laguna, he caught the smaller man in his arms and swore as Kadaj coughed up blood convulsing violently.

"Sir we've got to fall back!" Petria called.

"I'm not leaving him hear while he's breathing."

She nodded grimly, standing her ground besides him as they shielded Kadaj, the three giants were almost upon them when first one was wrapped in green flames, and then another engulfed in blue lightening. They fell like leaves, and then the two massive drakes descended upon the third, lifting it shrieking all the way, into the air and tearing it in two. Petria stood stunned as the dragons flew out over the battle continuing their carnage.

Laguna smiled. "That solves one problem."

He knelt down next to Kadaj, who was still coughing up blood and slid a potion into his mouth, clamping his mouth shut and forcing him to swallow it. Once he had he stood and began to follow the retreating battle.

"What about him sir, you said we couldn't leave him."

"We're not, he'll be fine so long as we keep pushing forwards, I wasn't going to let the Heartless take him, but they're running and our job is to beat them back."

Petria shot a look back at Kadaj, frowning for a moment before following. Laguna rejoined the battle and hacked his way forwards, looking to his left he spied Sephiroth.

"Your boy is hurt."

Sephiroth nodded curtly, slashing another foe clean in two.

"I gave him a potion, hopefully it'll take."

Again Sephiroth nodded and continued fighting.

"Aren't you going to see him?" He yelled.

"He's a soldier, he knows the risks, and so do I."

Laguna scowled, pushing forwards again, cold hearted bastard. Something barreled into his side and he fell over, the Heartless slashed at him with metal claws and knocked his blade away. The next slash cut straight through his armor, opening it like a can, he felt a searing pain in his chest saw red mist spurt into the air before his eyes. Then the Heartless was sent flying by a ludicrously sized blade and Cloud and Tifa were above him.

She knelt down, her eyes wrought with worry, "Daddy can you hear me?"

He smiled up at her. "Hey sweetie, I'm fine."

His eyes focused and he realized that she had a vicious cut across the side of her head. He reached up and brushed her cheek. "Your mother is going to kill me."

She laughed, then her eyes widened in shock as something hit her in the side, she fell atop him and he swore as she fell against his wound, pain blotting out his vision for a moment. He grasped for a weapon and grabbed a mace; he swung it wildly, smacking the thing that had hit Tifa into the air like a ball. Rolling out from under Tifa he felt for a pulse and breathed a sigh of relief when he found one, Cloud and Leon were besides him now, he didn't see Zack anywhere but he didn't concern himself with that.

Standing over Tifa, he bellowed at the Heartless facing him. "I've got two more daughters and a wife to return to, the likes of you are not taking that from me come on!"

Swinging the mace, he beat them back, Leon's caster fired repeatedly and Cloud's blade cut down entire swathes of Heartless, as the numbers facing him thinned he remained where he was by Tifa, he'd be damned if he'd leave his girl here by herself. The Knights were intermixed with the Elites and the Heartless now anyways, it wasn't like there was anything he could do himself to turn the tide of the battle. He remained with Tifa for the remainder of the battle, though he chased Cloud and Leon off to continue fighting, he never left her side, and when the fighting finally abated he carried her back towards the rear where the doctors and healers would be assembling.

Carrying her in his arms reminded him of when she'd been a little girl, holding her up in his arms for the first time, watching her take her first steps, her first word, embarrassingly enough had been Baast. That had been his fault; Julia still teased him about it. He passed the spot where he'd left Kadaj, Sephiroth was lifting his son in his arms, carrying the groaning boy in the same direction as Laguna was walking. The two men exchanged glances, Laguna's sympathetic, Sephiroth's impassive though Laguna saw the pain behind Sephiroth's gaze and smiled sadly inside. No matter how inhuman Sephiroth wanted to be, he couldn't help being a father.