Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ When Ever Where Ever ❯ 2 ( Chapter 2 )

A dozen weeks had passed, and due to the intensity of the fighting, the wise asses at Shinra corporation had decided that every three months a week's leave would be issued to all personnel on the front lines. Fresh troops were being rotated in to facilitate their leave. But they were incredibly green looking. "I almost feel sorry for the little twits." the lieutenant muttered. "I fell sorry for their momma's. Going to be a lot of funerals just to make a few heros." The sargeant said. Sam, as usual, didn't even try to keep her opinions to herself.

"What? Don't you have any confidence in your fellow Shinra soldiers?" A voice from behind her asked. It was amused sounding but rather cold, almost like the general. "Sir, No Sir!" She replied without missing a beat. Sam turned around to face yet another first class SOLDIER, this one leading the green unit. He was tall and had black spikey hair that shot up in a Mohawk style off of his head a good foot or more above his scalp. "Ah General Zack I believe?" Said the general from the door that lead to main headquarters. "Yes indeed. By any chance do I have the honor of addressing general Sephiroth?"

"I am who I am. Whether it is an honor or a tragedy is up to you." Then with a mild nod of one professional to another General Sephiroth turned and went back into the headquarters building. General Zack seemed a bit miffed by the way the general had treated him. This made Sam amused. "Hey don't look so glum Sir. At least he didn't kill you! You got off easy since he just made a suggestion that he might! He actually did kill me! Training exercise and all, but hey I got to be last woman standing, which is a very rare thing I guess. Good luck at the front Sir." Sam finished then with a snappy salute she turned and followed General Sephiroth in to headquarters.

"The Nearest town cross referenced as your hometown Sargeant. Would this be a suitable place for the men to have liberty?" Sephiroth asked without even turning to see who was behind him. Sam smirked softly, the corner of her mouth barely twitching upwards before her serious soldier face fell back into place. So he knew her footfall, and had bothered to learn to distinguish it. then what he had actually said sank in.

"No Sir. Marina Bay is not exactly a military man on leave's first choice." She replied. Sam hoped he would just take her word for it and not ask. Instead he just smiled. "Unfortunately it is the only one in range if we want to take our liberty in a completely friendly habitation. I should think you would be happy to go home again Sargeant. None the less we are going, but I will log in that you officially protested before hand. Just in case of an unforseen incident, you will be absolved of all responsability." The General turned around again and typed just that into the unit record.

"If we are going as you say then the men need to take their best weapons, conceal small arms on their persons and plenty of what they would see as sneaky underhanded types of weapons. Boot knives and the whole nine yards Sir. I don't want to have to bury anyone killed on home soil." He smirked then looked at her face again. The Sargeant had gone ashen gray at the thought of returning to that place.

"What is so terrible that we will need so many weapons in a homeland situation?" Sephiroth asked her. The young woman was barely past her teenage years and looked positively terrified. Something aweful must have occured to drive her so far from home as to enter the military. Very few from that district were not pacifists. Her answer when it came, barely choked it's way past the lump in her throat. "Its nothing but a giant gang banger haven. And yes I mean that too." She clarified when he raised an eyebrow in question. "You were how old?" he asked.

The mild concern in his voice reached her even through the haze of remebered horror and pain. Mild for him was utter pity for anyone else and she realized this. "I was eleven, my sister was five. My mother was first of course. Back then she was what is commonly called a raving beauty. What happened on that day made her a raving madwoman. There were twenty of them, some of the scariest hard luck cases and psychopathic criminals in the whole country. Even the "law" was to afraid to aprehend them. After they were done with my mother they used me and then my sister while she watched. Millie died of her injuries. That and the strain of the rape and watching as we were assaulted cracked my mothers mind and shattered her spirit.

If I had died as they thought I might she would have taken her life. I knew that too, so when death tried for me, seven times in the first night alone, or so they told me, I fought back. I lived and I asked her to try and live too. Without father it had been hard before. She was slightly crazed after his death at sea. After Millie was lost her lucid moments only came about once a week if that. Aunty Sharon says she has been getting better, but who among us could really recover from that. When you look up Shell shock in the dictionary they have a picture of my mother and I right next to it."

Sephiroth shook his head at the sad depravity of his race. Then he looked at the sargeant again. Her face was streaked with hot tears and she was not even in the present time anymore. He recognized post traumatic stress syndrome when he saw it. It was a familiar grievance for combat veterans, though for some reason he never suffered from it. She was having a flashback. It was most likely mild, due to the years that seperated her from the event and her training. But she was still seeing it all over again. her sister's murder, her mother's and her own rape's. The pain of wounds that never really closed afterwards, and having to bear her own grief silently for the sake of her mother's fragile mind, had nearly destroyed her.

Then Sephiroth did something completely out of character for him. He reached out to another human being with no intent to harm them. He pulled the Sargeant against him and wiped her tears away with a convientient tissue. She felt almost boneless in his arms and he knew if he released her she would not be able to stand on her own. So he sat down in the C.O's chair and pulled her into his lap. She sobbed heartbrokenly, the loss of her sister was a wound that had festered even more so then her own ravishment. He could sense this. He let the Sargeant cry herself unconcious and then he removed her boots and tucked her into her bunk before he sought out his father.

"She is in quite a state father. Would you do me the favor of practicing your secondary vocaion and couselling her somewhat when we return?" He requested politely. Professor Hojo was taking the opprtunity to give his son the mako shots that the bitch had forced their child to require. "Surely my boy. I also am proud of you for how you handled her. this will be good for her. To return to her point of greatest weakness at her time of greatest strength may well set her on the road to true healing. That and with you to protect her I am sure she will not suffer any repeat offenses?" He was teasing? Sephiroth's eyebrow shot up nearly to his hariline.

Was his father implying what he thought? Him and the Sargeant? "Are you even suggesting that I would..." Professer Hojo raised a hand to forstall his son's outrage. "I want to be a grandfather someday my boy. Perferably before I am dead. She is the finest specimen of womanhood I have yet to meet. Her strength and yours combined would produce heroicly fine children. But who am I kidding. You having children of your own is a pipe dream. Ignore the crazy old scientist and forget I said anything." he said then he gathered up the used needles and put them back in the case they had come from, and walked off to attend to some experiment or other he had running, conversation over.

Sephiroth went back to the barracks and found that the Sargeant was being watched over by a short statured private named Phillipe Vagarson. "Has she woken up yet private Vagarson?" He inquired. "Sir No Sir. The Sarge hasn't even moved so much as a muscle. She had one of her fits didn't she Sir." The Private stated. It wasn't a question. The boy knew she had some sort of breakdown and he acted as if she had done so before.

"Spill the information private, leave nothing out. This has happened before in your presence I take it?" the private nodded and proceeded to spin the tale of the last time his `Sarge' had a breakdown. "She caught some dumb shmuck forcing a local girl, and flipped out. First she screamed and it wasn't even close to human sounding. Sounded more like a wounded cougar or something like that. Anyway then she picks the guy up by his left ankle and flings him off the girl. Now this guy was good but the Sarge was berserk, so he really was a goner after that. He managed to get his pants back on before she struck, and he got off a few blocks and one counter strike. But nothing touched the Sarge, and her attack, the one called `Dagger Rain' ripped him to shredded bits about an inch wide and scattered the bits.

After that she cracked completely and broke down crying on the field. Would have taken a complete idiot to not guess she had been through that before and it nearly made her permanently bonkers. So we formed up, and picked up the Sarge and beat feet back to H.Q. She was out of it by the time we got back and we told the medic she had been concussed by an explosion. Thats the official story when something sets her off.

Doesn't usually happen more then every six months and never in combat after that one time. Whenever the newbies come in we give em fair warning though about the consiquences. Didn't think we would have to with you Sir, and I am glad we were right." The young warrior saluted. "I will sit watch on her for a while Vagarson. Go back to your ordinary duty." The Private nodded and slid off the chair giving it over to his long limbed commanding officer.

Only moments had passed when the Sargeant started to come around. Her first question was a true soldier's inquirey. "Have you announced our leave destination yet?" He shook his head. "Good since you will probably do so now it gives me time to gather and issue side arms and other weapons." She continued. Then Sargeant Sunnymoon smiled at him. "I actually think that I can do this now that I have the guys at my back."

She sat up and smoothed her hair back. The bangs, twin of his own except for their mismatched colors, popped foreward again without a second's interval between their release and return to shape. The behavior of her unruly mane was just what his own did when not wet or glued down with pounds of hair gel. Sephiroth couldn't help but chuckle at that strange similarity between him and the wounded she-eagle at his side. She realized without asking that he had the same hair woes as she and laughed right along with her C.O.

The next dawn saw them loading into a truck on the mainland having shipped to shore in the night by a heavy troop carrier. Peaceful waves lapped at the shore as they had done since time began. Her confidence boosted by the presence of her heavily armed fellow shinra soldiers Sargeant Sunnymoon had offered to drive the lead truck. "I know the way home better then any pigeon alive!" She had teased and it proved true. An hour before dusk she drove up to a still closed nightclub.

She pounded on the door and shouted loudly for entry. The entire unit stood ready. They had seen what passed for locals around here and many now understood why the Sargeant had been afraid to return home alone. Sephiroth was one of these. He had a hand on the Massamune, as well as the nine mil he carried as a back up. She seemed to be quite ferocious, until the door opened. Then she greeted the slender female on the other side with a tight hug.

"Well bless my stars and garters, welcome home sweetcakes!" Her Aunt greeted her. Some of the soldiers started laughing softly then it spread and soon everyone was guffawing at how red the Sargeant had turned. "Auntie not in front of the boys ok." The Sargeant asked politely. Her Aunt smiled blissfully. "Ya brought a whole lot. Are we bunking em all?" before Spehiroth could answer the Sargeant confirmed the situation was as her Aunt had supposed.

"Not problem baby. I'll get the boys to take out all them spare cots we have laying around and clean out the warehouse. They all should fit in there. Your flat is nice and clean too so that should do it. Ya need anything ya can charge it to the club's tab at the supply." Having said this the woman leaned over and whispered something even mako enhanced senses could not pick up in the Sargeant's ear.

Sam listened carefully to the whispered update on her mother's condition. Mother was being allowed with the supervision of one of Auntie's kids to clean and do other stuff at Sam's flat and here at the club. She was lucid most days now and was even looking foreward to seeing her child. "Might make her crack again for a bit but in the end it can only do her good." Sharon informed her.

She nodded and then Sam turned to the general. "Sir. Permission to be excused to go home Sir?" Sephiroth nodded and gestured to the Lieutenant. "Sir. Yes Sir!" The slightly nearsighted young officer said then he fell in with three hand picked men to escort the Sargeant to her home. He had given orders that no one so much as went to the head without six or so others as backup between an hour before dusk and two hours after dawn while they were in Marina Bay. That seemed enough precaussion for the moment but he was ready to up that or even insist on general quarters when not moving as a unit if need be. Sephiroth had a instinctual twinge that said that such extreme measures might not even be enough.

}}A/n once again this is For William who gave me a special publish or perish type Challenge! Everyone Thank El Pinchi aka the scourge of god aka Atilla aka William aka My Boyfriend! For getting me to start working in earnest all of two days before school starts up again! ^_^ {{