Fearless

Disclaimer: I hereby undo any claims I may or may not have forged to these wonderful characters and their wonderful world…

A/N: Please don't kill me for the last ending! Or not updating for a week after that whole mess!! *hides under rock* Read on, it'll all make sense…

Chapter 7

It felt and looked like he was reaching and floating up to a brightness that was growing in the sky…

…But something blocked the way. It was a someone. An image of a small, very angry someone.

"Don't you dare die on me, Zachary Fair! Don't you dare!"

…What…? No…let me go…

"You get your sorry first-class ass back here and you do it right now! Do you hear me?!"

Zack heard the voice…but who was it? It didn't sound like any one person in particular… But why were they keeping him from moving on, from relief? He wanted it to stop, just stop…

"It is not yet your time, child. Go back now…" This time it was a voice inside his head. A new voice that was like crystal: sharp and clear and ringing, so that he felt like his ears hurt, and also powerful, commanding. Zack was even more confused…

"You're staying right here and you can't do a thing about it!"

Unbeknownst to anyone else, Zack heard the yelling voice ring out in clear double tones that time. It was both the friend who had saved his life…and a lively girl who had all of a sudden exploded into that life.

Zack's eyes snapped open wide again and he was shocked back into reality for a second or two. His vision was filled with a pair of pale purple eyes before he drowned in their depths and passed out again, his eyes rolling back in his head.

But he was very much alive.

"If you die, I swear I'll follow you to the next world and kill you!" Diana finally just stopped, and let the threatening tears come. It had started to rain. The water mixed with the blood everywhere and made little rivulets running along the ground where she was kneeling. She dropped forward, her head on Zack's chest, trying not to sob. She had failed to help someone she cared for, again. She had failed to find a better solution, again. And she had failed to save what mattered most, in the end. She was out of things to hope for…

Then his chest moved. Diana froze. It rose and fell unevenly again. "He…he's breathing!" she gasped.

"Come on. We'll call for backup," Sephiroth said placatingly, evidently employing some higher level of control to detach himself from the situation.

"No, look! He's breathing! General, he's still alive!" she yelped.

He looked at her with vague, sad concern, and then he caught the barest movement of Zack's choppy breathing and he looked as confused and surprised as anyone could ever get him to be.

Diana shuddered suddenly as the pain from her wounds rushed back to her all at once. "S-see?" Her breath whooshed out as she crumpled the rest of the way to the ground, unconscious.

Zack was dreaming. He dreamed that an angel came to save him and take him from a horrible place…it must have been hell. But the angel was a little strange. Zack had always imagined them as pale blondes in long white dresses. Even though it was odd enough that he couldn't seem to get a good look at her, he knew she wasn't at all like he would have thought. She was of nondescript coloring, light but not quite pale, with brown hair—at least, he thought. When he tried to really see her, his retinas were seared by the blinding light that surrounded her. And he could never quite catch up to her…

Suddenly his angel was joined by another. Zack could see the new one quite clearly, however. She seemed familiar, with her long brown braid and pink dress. For some reason, though, he couldn't speak, and could no longer move as the two began to converse…

Diana, on the other hand, dreamed no dreams that night, or the next. At least, none that she would remember, until later.

But two days later, her eyes began to flutter open. She felt so strange. Everything seemed light and floaty, and hard to grasp, as if it were all just barely there. Like the misty clouds that always lingered at the tops of the mountains in the morning, that looked like the remnants of the sweep of angels' wings. Clouds…

Cloud! Zack!

She fully awakened, inhaling like she'd just surfaced from deep water, her fingers digging sharply into whatever she was resting on.

"Oh— Whoa! Di-Devon, relax! You're fine, it's okay," a voice next to her exclaimed. Diana turned to the speaker with wildly panicked eyes, then calmed down a little. It was Tifa. That meant she wasn't dead, right? But—

"Zack—Cloud—" she managed hoarsely. Her voice wouldn't work right, and it was well enough, because she had momentarily forgotten to fake her tone. And—hey—she was in the infirmary, or something. So she was alive.

"Sh, shh! They're fine," Tifa soothed, gesturing over Diana, who whipped her head over to see Zack in a hospital bed not five feet away. Cloud lay beyond him. She sighed and relaxed, her expression softening at her two sleeping friends. They both shifted slightly in their sleep, Cloud mumbling, and Tifa chuckled fondly.

"…Wha' happ'n'd?" It was all the groggy Diana could get out.

"Yeah. About that. From what little about it I could get out of Sephiroth, I have a question for you. Are you freaking insane?!"

"Uh…oh. Um. Well." She tried to clear her thoughts, rolling her head from side to side. She saw a glass of water on the table by her and reached for it, draining it quickly. That woke her up some more, but she was still vaguely hazy. Ugh…Tifa was going on one of her spiels again. Oh boy.

"What exactly were you thinking?! You really need to fill me in on the details, here—!"

"He was gonna die!" She finally found her voice, forcing her eyes to their widest to take in the light and the rest of the world. "I wasn't about to go and let him do something stupid like that. Yes?" she inquired indignantly at the look Tifa gave her.

"You are the strangest…person I have ever met," Tifa decided.

Diana smirked at her choice of words, completely coherent and aware now, then winced suddenly. "Urgh. Ow. What the?"

"You were shot twice, remember?" Tifa said dryly. "They had to do some work on your upper arm, and get the bullet out of your leg…" She shuddered. She never had been able to deal with weapons of much any kind.

Diana's face drained of color immediately as she listened. Her shoulder—that was so close to her bandages and what they hid about her. A million thoughts shocked her one after another. Did they find out? They must have. Why didn't Tifa say something right away? But I'm alive. Wouldn't they have executed me or something? Why didn't they just let me die? Or do they just want the please of seeing me die whole and well? What sickos…

Tifa noticed the abrupt change and said quickly, "I warned the medics about your condition and why you have to keep your ribs taped up, all the time." She gave her friend an overly obvious and significant look. The poor girl looked like she was going to pass out again. Stupid! Tifa chided herself. You should have told her straight off. She must be absolutely—

Diana's good arm shot out and she grabbed Tifa's hand. "You. Are. A. Lifesaver. And I mean that literally." Oh my Goddess, how can I repay you for this? she thought.

"It's the least I could do. I couldn't let something stupid like that happen." After a second she realized what she had said. "Oh, come on. That's a huge difference. I wasn't putting myself in danger for you," she scoffed.

Diana was about to deny her friend's claims and start gloating that she was right, but just then Zack stirred more than a little. Tifa moved over to his side and another young woman entered the room through a side door. She was pretty in a delicate way, with a long brown braid and wide leaf-green eyes.

"Are any of them—oh! How are you feeling?" she worriedly asked Diana, who was struggling into a sitting position using only her right arm.

"I'm fine—"

"Fine?!" Tifa exploded at her again. "Oh, I give up. Dev, this is Aerith Gainsborough. She took care of you three."

"Thanks a lot." Diana looked at Aerith gratefully. "I really am perfectly okay," she glared at Tifa, "And besides, Zack's in worse shape." She nodded at her near-conscious friend.

"Yeah, well, he'd be one hell of a lot worse if not for someone," Tifa glared back, her frustration renewed.

"I, um, missed that," Aerith gave a wary half-laugh. "I never got the full story."

"He took three bullets for Zack," Tifa said bluntly.

"Two!" Diana protested. "The third missed!"

Tifa waved a dismissive hand while Aerith's calm face was shocked into gaping slightly at Diana. She probably would have started firing off questions like only medics can, but her attention returned to Zack when he moved again and made a noise.

Zack got quite the surprise when he opened his eyes to two concerned faces. They were friends of his, he knew, but the faces wouldn't connect with the names in his head for a second. "Hey," he said weakly. "Tifa…Aerith… What are you two doing here?" More importantly, where was here? He wasn't dead, he didn't think, and besides, Tifa and Aerith most likely weren't. Death shouldn't ache this much… He blinked rapidly as his brain tried to take in his surroundings while the minute before he had passed out came back to him all in a rush. "Dev and Cloud." He took in a sharp breath. "Are th—"

"Right here. And over there. There's no reason for us to be dead, although Tifa's been doing her best to convince me otherwise." Diana rolled her eyes.

Zack looked over at his friend and focused on 'him' intently. "Thanks. Again." He got a ducked head with a half-smile in response. "Jeez, you've gone and made a habit of this," Zack grumbled. "Now I owe you again."

"And you know what? I'm not even gonna argue this time," Diana said thoughtfully.

"You, not argue? What parallel dimension did I land in?" Zack gave her a mockingly aghast look.

"Two reasons. One: if I do, you know the only way you'll win is by threatening me with some unpleasant duty that you know I'd refuse to do at all costs. Being my superior and all. And two: I have to agree that the whole ordeal was in fact fairly unpleasant, therefore someone should somehow owe me something. So there. I win." She stubbornly stuck her tongue out at her commanding officer.

"Wait, so then your conclusion is that you win?" He couldn't help but laugh.

"'Cause I anticipated you winning if I argued. Which I didn't. So now you can't win. So I win. It all makes sense; just ask Cloud over there, he'll tell you." She made a face. "When's he gonna join the party, anyhow?" She directed this at Aerith.

"He should be waking up soon," Aerith reassured them. She said something else but Diana was distracted. She was noticing some things about Aerith. She seemed to know an awful lot…about everything. And the way she analyzed everyone when she turned her gaze on them without even realizing it. She was almost…not human.

Whoa. Speaking of.

There was a man standing in the shadows of the far corner. He was wearing all black except for a red cloak with a high collar that hid most of his lower face, and a red piece of cloth that was tied around his head, presumably to keep his hair out of his eyes. Said hair could have competed with Sephiroth's easily, although it was by contrast jet black. But as if he weren't intimidating enough already—his eyes were a vivid crimson.

"Hello," Diana commented when Aerith paused in her talking. She held the unblinking red gaze.

Everyone else looked at her like she was insane before following her line of sight and giving a start. Everyone except Aerith, which deepened Diana's suspicions.

Tifa recovered first. "Oh, hey, Vince. This is Devon Loveless, and Dev, this is Vincent Valentine of the Turks." The man—Vincent—nodded at Diana. She did the same. "If you two and Cloud need someone to thank, look no further."

"Oh, I remember!" Zack exclaimed. "I think. Yeah, thanks, man." Diana thought of the red blur of what she had assumed to be a person that she'd seen after being shot. Aha.

"Yeah, and he's also the reason you guys aren't waking up in a science lab right now," Tifa continued grimly.

Diana took in a hissing breath and her nails dug into the sheets. Science labs…

"I'd like to see them try," Zack growled protectively. He was in charge of these two, and they were his friends besides. He could never forgive himself if he landed them all in a situation like that.

"Just about took the guy's head off who brought it up," said Tifa.

"I have my…motives." Vincent spoke for the first time. He had a very deep, slightly rough voice. As he spoke, Diana glimpsed a deeply buried pain in those crimson depths of eyes. She wondered what had happened to him. What had life done to him? She looked up to squarely meet his eyes again.

"I can empathize…I think." She barely made a sound but she knew that the Turk heard her. Zack had, too, but only because he had been looking right at her and had been able to read her lips.

"Almost. But I thank you," the Turk replied in the same way. No one else noticed the little exchange.

"Hrrrmm…Ti…fa…?"

Tifa looked over quickly to where Cloud was muttering. "Cloud? Can you hear me? Wake up," she whispered.

Cloud stirred and his eyes opened slowly. For a second he thought he was dreaming about an angel. Then he realized that she was close enough, in his eyes. He reached up with one hand, slowly, carefully, to touch her face.

Zack turned from the enraptured pair, smiling, to watch the antics of his other friends.

"A few more days?" Diana yelped, staring at Aerith in dismay. "I heal faster than that!"

"It's just to make sure—" Aerith tried placatingly.

A brief note of inspiration struck Diana. "Oh my Goddess, Zack, what are you doing?" Nothing, of course.

"What?" Aerith whirled to the man who she so totally was crushing on. Zack just looked mildly confused.

Diana seized her set-up opportunity and quickly one-legged-ly kicked off her covers, safe with the knowledge that she was wearing her bandages, a loose shirt, and sweats. Upon discovering the hard way that her right leg was useless, she hopped away, cackling madly in triumph.

"I—hey! What are you—? Devon!" Aerith flailed her hands helplessly, in pursuit of the escapee. How embarrassing, freaking out over Zack…

"You'll never take me alive!!" 'He' continued to pogo-stick crazily across the room. Zack burst out laughing uncontrollably. Devon had dived under a table and popped up on the other side, dancing out of Aerith's reach. He dodged her grasps easily, weaving away, still without using his right leg. Suddenly Devon overshot his own reach and he lost his balance, arms—well, one arm—windmilling wildly. "Ahhhh…!" he made a priceless face. Aerith made a grab for him and the boy acted on instinct, jumping straight up even with his impaired balance.

Zack was pretty sure that identical looks were on the faces of all those present. Well, Vincent looked mildly interested, at least, which was about as close to shocked as you could ever get the guy to look. Devon had jumped, all right. In fact, he was hanging from one of the rafters that had previously been six feet above his head. He hooked his good leg over and dangled by his knees, grinning before he realized that something was wrong.

"Hey—what the—?" Diana looked down a glaring Aerith.

"Down. Now," Aerith fumed, hands on hips.

Zack roared with his husky laughter, nearly falling off the bed. Tears leaked from the corners of his eyes when the two turned to give him equally ticked off looks, one right side up and the other upside down. "He--he--hahahahaha--you--ha--I--sorry--hahaha--ow—" He held his ribs, gasping for air.

Aerith huffed, looking back and forth between the two troublemakers. "Stay," she ordered 'Devon'. She marched off towards Zack.

"Hey, he's the puppy, not me!" Diana complained. While Aerith was distracted, she dropped clumsily down, landing with a splat. "Ow, dammit," she muttered, musing over her sudden ability to super-jump while searching for something to help her. Let's see. If Cloud is related to a chocobo, that must mean I'm related to…a developmentally challenged grasshopper? No, that can't be right… She found what she was looking for. She grabbed the single crutch from the pair that was leaning against the wall. She couldn't resist yelling, "So long, suckers!" over her shoulder as she reached for the door…

Which opened into her just as she reached it, knocking her over to send her sprawling on the floor.

Sephiroth looked down in surprise at the kid splayed out at his feet. "I'm sure there is not a reasonable explanation for this…" he said dryly. As it turned out, the sight of the disheveled teenager with a severe bedhead glaring up at him was all too much. Sephiroth cracked an amused smile and half-chuckled before looking at Aerith. "I'll leave them to you after all, then…" He backed out of the room.

"Why?" Diana despaired, flopping on her back and refusing to budge. "Ow—why me?" As Aerith managed to haul her into a chair, she absently noticed that Vincent was gone. She also saw that Cloud was sitting up and holding Tifa's hand. "Joined the living, have we?"

He smiled. "Yeah. I think I remember everything, even though I was—you know. Sorry for, like, entirely checking out like that on you guys," he muttered, his face falling.

Diana snorted and waved a hand. "Yeah, right. You did great anyway. 'S not your fault you had the bad luck to get hit just then."

He gave her a despairing look with those huge sky blue eyes. "You did, too, but you didn't…" he trailed off.

She fixed him with a look. "I was practically already on the ground. And you know, different people have different reactions to the stuff. Speaking of which," she looked to Aerith yet again, "while we're trapped here under dictatorship, could you enlighten us on that particular subject?"

Aerith stopped glowering. "I suppose I should. There's not much to it, really." She settled herself on Diana's recently vacated bed. "Mako isn't as simple as being an energy source. You know that part of the SOLDIER procedure is receiving injections, along with other cells that the scientists handle. We actually had to give you three mako to help you recover. You've been here for two days as it is."

"Wait, so it's helping us even though bullets made with the same stuff nearly killed us?" Cloud cocked his chocobo-like head to the side.

"It works the same way some venom in animals does. It all depends on how it's used." Aerith raised her eyebrows at Zack, bringing up an old memory.

He put his hands up in defense. "I'm telling you, that stupid venomous snake was seriously contemplating having me for lunch!" Everyone else started laughing at the fragment of a story. Zack shuddered. "That's what you get for being raised in a jungle village. See how you like it…"

"Anyhow," Aerith rolled her eyes. "Um, Devon?"

"Uh-huh?" she was still smiling.

"Something weird came up on your tests. Sound familiar? If you want, we can talk about it somewhere else." Everyone gave Diana confused and concerned looks immediately.

Diana's brow wrinkled as she frowned. Something weird? What could be off? She shook her head worriedly.

"It's not bad, per say, or anything, just…unusual." Aerith shifted. She'd never encountered something like this in an unmodified human before, since all the SOLDIERs she treated were obviously already stoked with it. "There were already traces of mako in your system." Aerith plowed on. "It wasn't from your injuries, because it gives off different signals when it's used as a weapon. It was used to heal and strengthen."

All Diana could do was dumbly shake her head slowly. None of that made sense. For the love of Gaia, she even hated needles!

"But the really weird part—" Wait, the really weird part? "—was when we ran a couple more tests. We tried to get an idea of the timeframe when the mako entered your system. I mean, there wasn't a whole lot of it, and, again, all we found were the traces, but…" She was really agitated now, wringing her hands. "I know you're just nineteen, but according to the tests…you received the mako almost exactly twenty years ago. We retried and retried, but that's the only result we can come up with."

"…I don't understand…" Diana got up and started pacing, at least, as well as she could with the crutch. For her to have had mako before was mystifying enough, but twenty years ago? That was just screwy. She would have had only barely been concei—

She froze, turned around the other way from her friends. "Oh, they did NOT!" With her yell, she dropped her support and whirled to face the rest of the room. They just looked bewildered. She turned this way and that, enraged but unable to move. "That's freaking inhumane! I'm going to kill that man! I don't believe this!"

Tifa was in front of her suddenly, taking her by the shoulder. "Dev. Dev. Calm down. Explain. Please."

"Okay, but first let me out of here so I can go commit some premeditated homicide." Diana ground her teeth together fiercely. She normally wasn't this violent, but this was a special case. She strained toward the door beyond the one friend who knew more about her than anyone else did right now.

"Who, Dev? Who?" Tifa asked desperately.

"Doctor Hojo," she snarled.

A/N: *crawls out from under rock* Ha! See? Now you can't kill me! I wouldn't kill off Zack, he's too amazing:) not to mention gorgeous. Anyway. Back to business. So, yeah, this one was a little bit shorter than recently, but I thought enough crazy stuff went on. Cliffhanger! Again! What's the Hojo connection? o.O You shall see…but I wanna hear ideas! Got any? (Psst…Zack says to review. Or he'll sic his huge-ass sword on you. Then again, that might not be so bad if it was him…) Oh, and did anyone notice that Zack woke up (when he came back to life or whatever you wanna call it) to a pair of purple eyes?? Hmm…what is this? Ideas/comments on that little detail also appreciated! (I give UltimateFreedom credit for that element in there. Oh the ideas we dream up while at the mall…) Haha, hope you enjoyed and thanks for reading!