Work Text:
The blunted tip of the blade slammed in Grace’s chest, and she fell to one knee, her weapon clattering to the ground. She wheezed for a moment, trying to catch her breath, bringing her hand to her chest to rub the spot where she’d been hit. It was just muscle memory, as there was no pain there, but she could feel the air constricting in her chest as she tried to stand on unsteady legs.
A whoosh to her right made her shift her weight, and she turned just as the blade arched towards her again, her long limbs weaving like a dancer out of way, as she somersaulted, grabbing her staff, and defaulting to a ready position.
“Good. Very good.”
Lucinia nodded approvingly and circled Grace and attacked again, this time doing her best to throw her off balance.
Grace tried to follow, but stumbled, losing her footing and tumbling backwards, landing splayed out on her back. She tried to catch her breath again, her chest puffing up and down with the effort.
Lucinia sauntered over to where Grace lay on the floor, laying the blade down gently on her neck.
“And now you’re dead.” She said, matter of factly.
Grace pushed the blade away angrily, standing up quickly and threw her staff to the ground. “That’s not fair! You have no idea how heavy all this shit is! It feels like I’m moving underwater.”
“Oh yes, ‘ Play fair!’ we ask the Mark 3 before it stabs us through the chest. ‘Play fair!’ to the Dicer before it takes our limbs. ‘Play fair!’ to the Rev-9 before it decapitates us.” Lucinia advanced on Grace, stabbing her in the chest with each point. “I don’t play fair because they won’t either. You are supposed to be better than us, Grace. You have been given a gift. You are stronger, faster, can hear, see, smell more than any other human who ever lived. You are supposed to be better, act like it.”
Grace fell back with each poke, her brows furrowed, her face hardened into a mask. When she didn’t reply, Lucinia took another step forward.
“You are running out of time, and you are failing your Commander. I will kill you myself before I send you back unprepared to watch her die.”
Grace’s hand, which had been curled into a fist, flew open, and she grabbed the end of the pike, snatching it from Lucinia’s hands, and using the opposite end to knock her feet from under her. She then moved the blade to Lucinia’s throat, pushing gently on the pulse point there.
No one moved for a moment, and the only sound were the heavy breaths coming from the two women. And then suddenly behind them, a voice.
“Okay, that’s enough practice for today.”
Dani stood watching the pair, and when Grace didn’t move, she walked over, easily sliding the pike from her tight grasp.
“Good job, both of you.” She reached down and helped Lucinia to her feet, but before she could turn, Grace was gone, moving with a blindingly fast movement out the door of the training room, slamming it behind her.
“Commander-,” Luciana began.
“That was over the line, Corporal. She is trying her best.”
“With all due respect, Commander, her best isn’t good enough. There isn't much time left. We can’t let her ease into this, it has to be done with all due haste. She’s got a deadline.”
Dani sighed, the weight of the current events causing an almost physical discomfort in her chest. She took a moment, collecting herself before she spoke again. “We know there is a deadline. We all know. You know, I know, she knows. We’ll do her a greater service by helping her get where she needs to go, not pushing her towards it. Do you understand my meaning?”
Lucinia looked like she was trying best not to roll her eyes, but she nodded. “Yes, Commander.”
Dani smiled, in spite of herself. All the time she’d known Lucinia, she knew she could trust her to give her honest opinion, but she also knew that no matter how much they disagreed, their conversations would always end with a ‘Yes, Commander’. That’s why she’d chosen to trust Lucinia with the real reason Grace had joined the augment program, and the real reason she needed to be trained so quickly.
She patted Lucinia’s shoulder. “She finally got the jump on you, eh? You getting a little long in the tooth, there friend?”
“Not at all, Commander!” Lucinia said, scandalized. “She just caught me by surprise, that’s all. For all that I’ve told her here, Grace is and always has been a terrific fighter.”
“Of course, and that’s why we’re sending her.”
“Is that so?”
There was a touch of doubt in Lucinia’s voice, and Dani hurried to soothe it.
“Of course, Corporal. She volunteered, and let’s not forget, very recently, she saved my life.”
“That she did. We know that she’ll fight tooth and nail for you. She’ll fight ‘till her very last breath.”
Dani turned serious. “And that’s why you’re here, Corporal, to make sure that she won’t have to.”
Lucinia nodded grimly.
“Now, I’m off, get some rest. We start fresh in the morning.”
Lucinia saluted, and Dani returned it half heartedly. She was never one for chains of command, and the like, but it gave their little ragtag army a sense of structure, so she abided by it. She managed to stay strictly professional, detached, and commanding in every subject and on every purpose but one. Those who knew her well didn’t mention it, and those who didn’t know her… Well, what did it matter what they thought? She had plenty of soldiers that she could trust and she kept close. She didn’t have to explain herself to anyone.
Almost no one, anyway.
Dani found Grace where she usually found her these days. After they had gained more and more ground, Dani had their best scientists begin to research how they could grow food underground. They had settled on a technique that used hydroponics and grow lights, but more advanced than anything that had been used before. The UV light was efficient to a fault, mimicking the arch of sunlight as it would have been on the surface. The area, affectionately called Eden, which stretched nearly three hundred acres across, was one that had been duplicated in hundreds of sites all over the world. At first, Edens were easy targets for Legion, but later, once they were better fortified, they were a steady source of food for their constantly fluctuating population. They were also the only places on Earth where one could experience sunlight, even the artificial kind, on a grand scale.
Dani walked towards a grove of Van Aken trees, and noted the variety of fruits that grew on it’s branches. Plums, apricots, cherries, nectarines, and more hung heavy on the branches. It would be ready for harvesting soon. She approached slowly, taking a handful of cherries off, and polishing them on her shirt before tossing one to Grace. She sat underneath one tree, leaning against the trunk, her legs pulled tightly to her chest, her head bowed over her knees.
The cherry thumped harmlessly against her legs, and Dani laughed.
“I thought you were supposed to have a spidey sense about all dangers.”
Grace didn’t look up, and Dani tried again, settling in beside her, careful not to touch Grace, put close enough that she could feel the heat radiating off of her.
“Don’t mind Lucinia, Grace. I mean, you know that’s how she is. She’s an intense person. She has been since I’ve known her. She has been since you’ve known her. She’s trying her best, and she doesn’t see that you’re doing the same.”
There was still no response, so Dani nudged Grace gently with her shoulder.
Finally Grace raised her head, and Dani’s eyes went wide when she realized that Grace had been crying. Grace had probably cried only a handful of times since Dani had known her. Usually moments of great happiness, which in this place were few and far between. Sad tears almost didn’t exist. You became numb to the sad things pretty quickly. Not a day went by before a friend was killed, or a nursery was destroyed, or an important transport disrupted. Loss was the only constant, and pessimism ruled. It made a person hard. It had made Grace hard. Which is why Dani was so surprised to see her like this.
“I can’t sleep.” Grace began, miserably.
Dani nodded, and scooted a bit closer, putting an arm around Grace’s shoulders. They were still hot to the touch, but she’d no doubt taken her supplement to counteract the effects.
“I lie in bed, and I just feel so heavy, so clumsy. But when I move, I can fly lightening fast, and I don’t know how to reconcile the two. And even if I can get to sleep, the slightest sound wakes me up. You never realize how loud this place is until you have super sensitive hearing.”
“We can get them to turn it down until you get used to it-” Dani began.
“I stubbed my toe on the side of my bed, and I didn’t feel a thing. It’s like I’m a ghost, like I’m some sort of zombie. But at the same time, I have to be more me than I’ve ever been before. I have to fight better than I ever have, and see farther, and hear things. I don’t-” Grace breathed deep, trying to catch the sob that threatened to escape. “I don’t know if I can do it, Dani. I don’t know if I can protect you.”
Her head fell again, and Dani lost all pretense then, wrapping both arms around Grace and pulling her in tight.
“No, Dani, I’m too heavy, you can’t-”
“Shhh. None of that, come here.”
Grace finally relaxed and Dani pulled her closer. She just relaxed for a moment, her back against the tree. After a moment she spoke up in a small, quiet voice. “You don’t have to do this, you know.”
Grace’s breathing hitched for a second, but she said nothing.
“All you have to do is say the word and this whole thing is off. We’ll figure out some other way. We still have teams hat are trying to destroy their device before Legion can use it. There is still time.”
Grace pulled away, looking desperately into Dani’s eyes. “I want to go, Dani. I have to go. It can’t be anyone else.”
“Why not, Greicita ?”
“Because as long as there is breath in my lungs, I will never let anything happen to you.”
There was a long pause, and Grace noticed how close Dani was to her face. She could feel the short puffs of air from her nose, and see the faint flutter of a pulse on her neck. The wrinkles in the corners of her eyes that were just beginning to show, and the veins underneath her eyelids that stood dark against her amber skin. It was almost like she was seeing her for the first time. Grace took a steadying breath, something in her wanted to reach out, and touch Dani gently, and in ways that she never had before. And may never get the chance to.
She reached out for her chin, and tilting Dani’s face upward, Grace placed a kiss on each of her eyelids, and then both her cheeks, her forehead, and then her chin. They were both practically panting when she finished, and it took all of Grace’s strength not to press her lips against Dani’s. She pulled away slightly.
“Dani, I-” she began, but the rest of her sentence was lost when Dani flung herself forward, wrapping her arms around Grace, and slamming her lips against her. Their tongues danced over one another, desperate and searching, until their lips were swollen and their faces flushed.
When they finally pulled away, Grace looked embarrassed, but Dani pulled her hands into her lap, catching her attention.
“Hey. Don’t, you’re okay.” She looked up, searching Grace’s expression. “Was that okay?”
Grace smiled, biting her lip. “You don’t know how long I’ve wanted to do that. I’m just- It just sucks that we waited so long.”
“Well, there’s a lot to consider. I am the leader of the entire human resistance to Legion after all.” Dani said, resting her forehead against Grace’s. “I’m kind of like your boss.”
Grace laughed, and Dani was glad to see the last of the worry leave her face. “It’s good to see you smile. I’ve always loved that.”
“I don’t want to let you down.” Grace became serious.
“Then go there, and come back. That’s all I need you to do. Come back to me, Greicita .”
She nodded. “I will keep you safe.”
“And yourself safe.”
Grace nodded again.
“I’m glad we worked all that out. Now, let’s go get some food in you, and you can come back to my rooms. I like how warm you are now, you know how cold I always get.” Dani said, rising and taking Grace’s hand.
There was something bold in Dani’s voice, and Grace looked a little shocked.
“Daniela Ramos! Are you propositioning me?”
“Only if you want.” Dani said with a grin. Suddenly her voice turned soft, and she took both of Grace’s hands in hers.
“Grace, I want to give you-” She stumbled and tried again. “Whatever you want is yours, Grace. I- I love you.”
Grace gulped and smiled softly. “I just want to be with you, Dani, that’s all I want right now.”
“Good, then!” Dani said, continuing to lead Grace out of the Eden. “That’s all I want too. That’s all I’ve ever wanted.”