Chapter 379: Intermission
Laz went to get some food and ended up going for a walk. He felt like this was what he really should be doing to train these girls, but he wondered if it would help. As he looked around the compound on his walk, he thought to himself that they were too stationary and that could invite trouble. If the place was found one day, they would be under siege and in that event, there wouldn’t be any moral codes that the ones attacking them would adhere too. Instead, they would probably consider each dead member of the order as a win. And the ones that they took alive would have a much worse fate.
’Perhaps this is why I move around so much?" Laz reflected as he found a tree stump and sat down, munching on a sandwich.
Ever since he left New York, he had never gotten the feeling of any place actually being like a home for him. Instead, they were just stops along the way as he continued his journey. While that kind of life might sound exciting, not having a place to go back to also weighed on his mind at times.
’Ha. Maybe I sound like an old man. I’m still young so who knows where things might go?’ Laz sighed as he looked into the blue, cloudless sky.
Perhaps it wasn’t his intention, but after spending time thinking about his life, who he was, where he was going and what he felt, Laz’s mind felt stronger than ever before. He didn’t often get a chance to mentally reflect, but it seemed like there was a lot of good in doing so.
While Laz was off contemplating life, Gretchen, Wilma and Celes were involved doing their best to help out the forty messed up women who had managed to drag themselves to the cafeteria for lunch. Some of them limped, many of them grunted at the pain of their own steps and a few had to be helped by others. Luckily, Gretchen and Wilma had predicted that they would end up this way and although they left early to avoid the sight, they had prepared some additional clothing for the women when they arrived to eat.
"What the hell happened here?" Celes asked, noticing that despite their injuries, the women seemed almost happy and energetic.
"Training mistress," One of them replied back before she turned back to her food, hungrier that she had been in a long time.
"TRAINING?" Celes turned to her grandmother and Wilma but found that they both just had a slight smirk on their faces. And to top it all off, they refused to talk about it, instead saying that Celes would understand later.
While they meant this nicely, it just pissed off Celes more. Celes hadn’t mentioned what she had seen in the basement lab of Nora’s. And this wasn’t because she though she should protect her friend’s secret. It was because she had wanted to talk to Nora first to try to understand what was going on. Her Grandma had always been saying she needed to be more responsible as a leader and handle things herself and this just happened to be the time she was going to try that.
Of course there was another, much deeper reason for her keeping it quiet, the reason being that she had actually been turned on by watching her friend and someone she thought of as an older sister being fucked silly by a guy. But that wasn’t something she would admit even if she were tortured to death. Still though, with both those thoughts in mind, she used them as an excuse to not say anything to anyone. As for Gia and Joan though, Celes had asked them nicely to not say anything and let her handle it. Seeing her being so insistent, the girls agreed.
Now though, as she heard the series of events laid out before her, a few different feelings came up to war within her mind. She was pissed off that so many of her friends had been injured, glad that they would heal fine and also scared as to Laz’s actual strength.
Turning to Gia who was laughing even while two of her friends were fixing her dislocated shoulder, Celes asked,
"What the hell is wrong with everyone? Why the fuck is everyone so happy about getting beaten?" Celes asked her as she finally winced once the setting took place.
"Hmm... Mistress... Have you ever seen that movie about back room fighting? You know, with those two sexy guys that are actually the same guy? It’s an older movie now, sure, but still pretty popular. Well, I’ve never really got it before, why would people enjoy being hit and hitting others for the fun of it? Doesn’t make a lot of sense, right? Must be a guy thing right? Sure, I like martial arts, but it was always about being a contest, not about getting hurt. Instead, you’re trying to be better than your opponent. Anyway, my point. Yeah. Well, this was... I don’t know... fucking fun. And he didn’t beat us up. I think this was done when I plowed into Maggie over there... yeah, her. Three broken ribs Maggie. Yeah. Anyway, my point.. What was my point?" Gia was more excited than anything else so her thoughts were a bit messy.
"It was like a real battle. For the first time I can remember, my blood boiled I felt like I wanted more. I wanted to keep fighting. I wanted to be the last one standing. Hell, I even wanted to kill at one point, but that’s when he stopped me. Fuck that ass hole knocked me over with just a punch. But that was all it took to wake me up, made me remember who I was fighting and shit so we didn’t kill no one. He fucking walked that field like he was a god damn god of war and we were just his troops. So yeah, it wasn’t a real life or death struggle or nothing, but I finally felt connected with my inner self. And it felt good." The one who spoke here was the tall one Laz had interacted with earlier. She also happened to be the one who was trained in sports medicine and helping Gia set her shoulder back into place.
Nelli was one hell of a crazy woman, something no one ever said to her face, but she was also one of the best fighters of the order besides Gia and Joan. As such, Celes took her words to heart and turned to Gia again.
"So like that?" Celes asked.
"Exactly like that. It’s hard to really explain but the fighting, the battle, everything just felt so right..."
"Fucking perfect. I’ve never felt so at home in my own skin, or alive," Nelli added.
"That just seems so..." Celes didn’t understand. She felt like even if she went through that, there was no way she would feel the same way. How would anyone enjoy getting hurt? And what’s more, getting hurt by each other, people you live with and trust? It just didn’t make sense to her.
To Wilma and Gretchen though, they didn’t doubt it for a minute.
"It’s weird but... it make sense?" Wilma shared her thoughts.
"He understands things more than any of us. I hate to say it, but what else could it be? We are stumbling around in the dark, trying to figure out ways to get stronger and believing what we find on the internet while he is... Figuring stuff out himself?"
"So you think he knew that this would be the result of asking the girls to kick each other’s asses? And how did he know they would do it? I mean, Gia’s group sure. Those girls are ruthless. But some of the other’s here? Like Maggie with the three broken ribs who dislocated Gia’s shoulder? I’ve seen her cry one time when a spider got in her hair. Yet somehow he got her to do this? And she doesn’t look the least bit upset either." The both then turned to stare at the young girl Maggie who had been bandaged up and watched her wince as she took a drink of water. What surprised the two older women was that as she finished, two of the other girls came up and started laughing with her while she laughed back. When one of them decided to poke her ribs for fun, sweet little Maggie kicked the chair out from underneath her and she fell on her ass, crying out as her bruised ass hit the ground, upsetting the injury already there.
After she finally stood up again, all three of them burst into laughter like nothing had happened and just went on talking.
"That Maggie is still the same Maggie?" Wilma questioned Gretchen who just shrugged.
"What do I know? But you see if for yourself right?"
"I guess."
While neither of them could explain it, they couldn’t deny it either. Laz had somehow turned this mixed group of girls towards the path of warriors.
Both women then looked over at Celes who was still walking around and talking to the other girls to see how they were feeling, how they were injured and things like that.
"I wonder what the afternoon group is going to be like?" Gretchen said, looking at her granddaughter. She understood the girl better than anyone and knew that while the girl was strong, she was also stubborn and didn’t like to fight. Unlike a shy girl like Maggie who just needed to be drawn out of her shell, Celes was already out and stuck in her ways.
’Can he change her too?’ Gretchen asked herself, more excited than ever to watch then afternoon group.
