Author's Notes: Oh my God! I made it into the double digits! You know what that means, don't you? I need twice as many reviews:grins ruefully: Seriously though, please read it and comment on the good or bad points of the story! I will love you all even more... if that's possible.

Yah, um... I don't own Fearless. Let's just leave it at that since it is painfully obvious.

5:50 A.M. January 28, 2006

That terrible sound rang in her ears. Laughter, starting out small and then growing into a roar of noise, chortling, gasping. Gaia didn't want to look behind her. If she did, she would have to face up to the fact that this was all her fault. She'd sworn to protect Willa. She was supposed to be up all night keeping watch. Guilt swept over her. She hadn't done anything to save her friend. And if something had happened to her because of this... Gaia didn't think she could ever forgive herself.

She slowly turned her head to face whoever it was behind her. Sure enough, there was a man, but she could only see his eyes through his white mask. They were cold and gray, watching her as she watched him, reading her reaction. She studied his posture. He was a medium-sized guy, but he didn't exactly look like a combat expert. His white gloved hands rested at his sides tensely, as if prepared to exchange blows if he needed to. But Gaia wouldn't even give him a chance to lay a hand on her. Or another on Willa. She growled at him.

"Where is my friend?" she demanded, meeting his cool eyes with a fiery passion.

He shook his head. "She's in a better place. She's safer now. She isn't afraid, don't worry about her. But then again, neither are you," he spoke, his voice a smooth, flowing sound.

"'Neither am I' what?"

"Afraid."

Gaia tensed. How could he know? How could he know that she didn't feel fear? This was already starting to feel like another Loki. He must have been watching for some time now. But that didn't mean that she would put up with it ever again. She wasn't seventeen anymore, dammit. "Where did you take her?" He didn't respond. He didn't even flinch. "Where did you take Willa? What did you do to her?" she shouted, her voice echoing in the silence of the morning.

"Gone. She's gone, young one. Disappeared. It was magic." His face split into a crooked, insane smile.

"Shut up about magic and give me a straight answer!"

He paused, looking as though he was enjoying this exchange far too much. "I can't tell you that. A true magician never tells the secrets of his tricks. Or her tricks." His smile grew into an enormous grin. "What about you, Gaia? Oh wise one?" She flinched with anger. He'd heard that? "What is the secret of your trick? The secret to never feeling fear? Tell me, because I need to know far more than you need to know where your stupid, inconsequential friend is."

"I feel fear," Gaia insisted. "I'm just not scared of assholes like you who think they're so tough, all right?" She stepped closer to him, her lips curling menacingly. "So tell me where Willa is or I will rip you to pieces, do you hear me? I will tear you apart!"

"You wouldn't do that to me, now, would you?"

"Yes, I would." Why did this guy seem so familiar? And she had been so sure she hadn't been keeping the company of psychotic kidnappers since she'd moved to Minneapolis. "Where is Willa?" she asked one final time. Her patience had stretched out long enough already.

"She's fine," he told her with a quaint smile. "So stop looking so angry. She's perfectly safe."

Gaia's rage, which had been threatening to boil over this entire time, finally burst the bounds of her self-control, and she hit him deptly with a combination of punches that ended with a powerful right hook. The man, after wobbling dangerously, fell onto his side, but leapt to his feet only a moment later. He was more resilient than he looked. He lunged stupidly at her, grabbing her around the waist, and she tried a number of maneuvers to force him off, but the guy just wouldn't let go. His bony arms clung so tightly to her that she could barely breathe. Finally she managed to kick him off, and he landed with a dull thud on the tiled floor in front of her. But that was when she heard him call out.

"Boys! This is her! The one we want!"

The sound of heavy footsteps from all around her was enough to tell her how much they outnumbered her by. Even if they were all pathetic slugs, there was no way she could fight them all off. She glanced around her on every side, and began making plans as they approached. It was just that... She couldn't think clearly. It was as if a fog had settled in over her brain. Instead of her usual adrenaline, a new sort of confusion pumped through her veins. Now she could barely register what direction they were coming from. Pain erupted from her cheekbone, and her legs gave way below her. She was attacked again and again, but she couldn't fight it off. She couldn't even see where they were coming from. The glossy floor met her face with a smack.

Gaia was rolled onto her back. Why couldn't she move her body? What was wrong with her? Her eyes that had always been alert and steady were suddenly shifty and unfocused. The guy was straddling her, taking out a needle. He looked more than happy to be doing this. To be hurting her. Almost everyone she'd ever know had wanted to hurt her. Except for Ed. God, she wanted to see him again, just one last time. She hadn't even had a chance to say goodbye to him... But she was forced to watch as he tapped the needle and squirted out a little of the liquid. Shit. She didn't want it to end like this, not like this... Not in the hands of some madman...

Before the needle could be inserted into her skin, the blackness took over her body.

"Get off her!" a familiar voice shouted.

Time unknown, Place unknown

Gaia was intensely sore. So sore she could barely feel her body. Much less move it.

She opened her eyes, trying to get a grip on where she was or who had taken her here. But she could barely make out any of the place. Her eyesight was blurred and strangely distorted. She could make out this much: it was dark in here. Dark and damp, the air had a humid, unnatural smell to it. The walls... wait, she was in a room, there were walls! She squinted around her and realized that there was, in fact, a wall on every side of her. In the shadows they seemed to be closing in on her. Like she was in a coffin, being sent off to death.

Trying to clear that thought from her mind, she felt around where she lay. Her hands and arms had come back to her now. She was lying on some kind of cot, with a sticky blanket draped over her. But she wasn't chained down. There were no restrictions to her movement at all besides her own strange weakness. Whoever had put her here was going to regret not chaining her down when she was through with them. They couldn't get away with kidnapping her like this. For once Gaia was happy not to be afraid. The pain she would unleash on them would be fine payment for having to be locked up in this room for a few hours. That was, if they came in to check on her.

Suddenly remembering something, she rubbed her arms, hoping that they hadn't managed to get that needle into her veins. She didn't feel any bumps or pains, but that didn't necessarily mean anything. For all she knew, she'd been in here so long that any injuries could have completely healed since then. So she waited. Waited and tried to rebuild her strength. She needed to be ready for an attack.

Sounds echoed outside the room. Footsteps. The tinny sound of a voice. But through the door Gaia couldn't make out anything. She got to her feet slowly and painfully. This was it. They'd be walking right into her trap. The doorknob jingled slightly as a key was inserted, and the door swung open. All she could see was a black figure in the middle of an enormously bright pool of light, like some sort of dark angel. That was all she needed.

Gaia swung at the figure enthusiastically, and was happy to see him fall to his knees, groaning. What she didn't expect was to be tripped as his leg circled his body, and to fall heavily onto her butt.

"Haven't changed a bit, Gaia. Good to see."

It was her father. Ha. Some dark angel.

Surprise struck her first, and then disgust. "You kidnapped me? Why? How?" Her eyes only grew larger, opening with shocked anger. "Oh God, you're not Loki, are you?"

He tsked tsked and got to his feet, offering her a hand. Gaia refused it, preferring to get up on her own. "Of course not. And I didn't kidnap you. I rescued you. Rescued being the key word here. You probably don't remember; you were pretty far gone by the time I got there." He stepped out into the long, grey-tiled hallway, and she followed him suspiciously. "But you should know something."

"What?" Her father seemed so reluctant to answer that she thought she might have to beat it out of him. "C'mon, I can handle it. What?"

"Well, it's not a positive thing, you know, there could be some kind of error. You'll have to be tested, but key evidence says that... well, it says something that is a bit unpleasant."

Gaia stomped her foot impatiently. "Spit it out."

"Your great-grandmother on my side, the one you never met, Dianne, was a lot like you, Gaia. She was so brave, and everyone was amazed at what she could do, at how intelligent she was. Now... Looking at remaining DNA samples... It seems that she was fearless too. You're not alone. It all makes sense now, genetically." His eyes, though alive from explaining the story, seemed pained and gloomy. As if what he had to tell her really was horrible. "My mom carried it. Oliver's disease happened because of a malfunction in the gene. I was the carrier."

She sighed. This really wasn't so bad. It actually explained a lot of things. "Is that all?" she asked, relieved.

"No," her father breathed. "Your great-grandmother died when she was twenty-five."

Gaia frowned. While this was slightly saddening, she didn't see what this had to do with her.

"That missing gene... It isn't right. Your body system doesn't know, has never known, how to deal with it being gone, and it's just beginning to misfunction now." His deep blues eyes met hers and held them, fear reflecting from them onto her. "Because you don't have the fearless gene. You have the fearless disease."