Author's Notes: So the truth finally comes out... (:

R&R or DIE! (Well, you won't die, but I'll probably be sad.)

I do not own Fearless. I own this story though:looks cheerful: Hope you like this next installment!

1:24 P.M. January 30, 2006, warehouse

"What?" Gaia breathed.

Her father looked down at her comfortingly, gently running his fingers through her hair. She shook him off. "I wish I could have told you sooner. I just found out myself, I..." He bent his knees and looked up at her, trying to regain eye contract. "I'm sorry that it happened this way. But there are ways to recover, ways to fix it..."

She turned away from him and leaned against the plain, cold wall. This couldn't be right. Her fearlessness was a freak mutation, sure, and had always been a burden, but... For it to be a disease. That was taking it a whole level beyond where she had ever dreamed. Her mind buzzed with possibilities. What would happen to her now? She frowned. "Will I die?"

"There is a certain likelihood," he murmured, his voice seeming distant. Like the miles apart they had been remained between them, even though they were now so near. "But like I said, it can be cured."

"The fearlessness or the disease?" Her breathing was getting louder as she felt a mess of emotions coming at her. No matter how many times she convinced herself that her life sucked and that she almost wished it would end, the thought of actually dying had always seemed so far away. Now it was all around her, and she groaned frustratedly, trying to fight off the weight of the consequences that she knew would happen. Death couldn't be an option. Not after all she'd been through. She had to keep going, keep moving.

His hand rested on her shoulder, but this time she didn't push him away. "The fearlessness is the disease. To be rid of one you have to be rid of both. Here, I'll take you with me to the doctor. He's formulated an injection, you--"

"I am not taking an injection."

"Gaia, please. This is a life or death situation."

"What about Willa's life?"

"Willa? Oh. That waitress girl. We haven't found her yet, but we will, I assure you--"

"I need to see her. It's all my fault," Gaia whispered, on the brink of tears.

"What's your fault? Nothing--"

"I was supposed to keep an eye on her! I was supposed to protect her since I was the one who didn't feel fear! But this goddamn curse did nothing to help, do you hear me? She could be dead because of me! And I can't just sit here while she could be anywhere! That freak could be doing anything to her!" Her eyes met her father's dead on, full of fury and sadness. "I'm going to go find her. Now."

"You need treatment--"

"And now you care what happens to me? After you left me again? After you betrayed my trust for the thousandth time? I don't need your consideration, okay? You just go off and tell that doctor that I care about someone other than myself!"

"Is that what this is about?" He sighed, as if comprehension was just dawning on him. "You think I don't love you? Of course I do, you've always known that. Every time I leave, it's for your own protection. And I tried to retire, I did, honestly, I just was needed for one last mission. And now it's over. It will never happen again."
Gaia furiously turned on him. "That has nothing to do with Willa being out there with some madman!"

"A madman who is after you." He reached out to her. "I can't let you go out there. Think of what he could do to you."

"That never bothered you before, did it? Leaving me in the hands of someone who wanted to hurt me? Think about it. Ella, Natasha, George? My so-called guardians? Why should I trust your judgement? For all I know you could be wrong about my--" She couldn't think of the appropriate word. --"fearlessness and this whole thing is just some kind of ruse from a rogue agent trying to weaken me!"

"But it isn't. Dr. Rolff is just a couple blocks away, he can tell you for himself..."

"Screw that. I'm getting out of here." She stomped towards the end of the hallway, only to find that it was a dead end, and began her jog to the other end.

"You need to be cured, Gaia. I can't just let you die, can I?"

"How long do I have?" she demanded, not slowing down.

"Not long. A couple months, maybe, without treatment."

"Long enough," she grunted. "I'm saving her." There was a narrow fire escape door just ahead of her, and she threw it open hastily. "I'll come back," Gaia muttered before jumping out onto the flimsy red ladder.

Five fruitless hours on her feet had gotten her nowhere. She'd run all over Minneapolis, checking warehouses and other suspicious-looking places, but she still hadn't found Willa or that creep who was holding her. And she was beginning to feel that she never would. That overwhelming pessism that resided in her had popped up once again, and just when she needed to feel optimistic. She'd just learned that she would probably die, for Chrissake. But no. She shouldn't think of that. She should think of the positive things.

Swallowing a sob, she thought of Ed. She hadn't seen him for days now. She missed him so much. But she shouldn't think of that. She thought of his face, smiling and happy, so trusting, so naive. The way his hands felt around her waist, the way he calmed her down, the way she felt hot whenever he touched her... She would never get to feel that way again. She would die. Even if she got treatment, life could never be the same for her. She would feel fear. Be like everyone else. Somehow her past experiences with that theme hadn't worked out too well for her. Would Ed still love her if she wasn't the badass he'd always known her to be? She would just be a normal, down-to-earth girl. No super-freak. In a way it was a relief. But in others... She didn't want to think of the possibilities.

If she could just find Willa so much stress would be taken off her mind. Gaia could get the treatment, and this whole freakish situation would be solved. Sure, she'd be changed forever, but it would be worth it just to live, just to live to see Ed again. More than once again, if things worked out the way she hoped they would. Her pace quickened. It was starting to get dark outside; that meant she didn't have much time left before her father would come back out looking for her. Her freedom was always limited. She was just like an animal on a leash.

Frustrated, she sank onto a bench, feeling a wave of exhaustion break over her, the wave that had been threatening to crash ever since the night she'd failed Willa. If she never found her, she was sure she would never be able to move on with her life. But here she was, trying to deal with all her pathetic emotions instead of going out and kicking the ass of whoever it was who had taken her away. She sighed. If she only had the energy to keep searching... She ran her hands over her forehead. Where the hell was that guy? And who the hell was he? He obviously knew who she was, and Willa.

Gaia got to her feet again, inspired by the anger that thinking of whoever that creep was created. Her feet pounded on the sidewalk. Walking turned into running. She could never stop looking. If she stopped, what would that make her? A coward. That seemed a strange thought for someone who had never truly felt fear, but considering what would soon happen, it was all the more appropriate. She had to keep looking until she found that man and took Willa away from him. She couldn't just let Willa stay there with him, especially when it was all her fault that she had been there in the first place. We'll be fine, she remembered, hating herself all the more. Well, she would never make that mistake again. Guilt was seeping into her more and more. She had to make up for what she had done so horribly wrong.

"Agh," she grunted as she tripped on a jutting out piece of sidewalk and fell down on her front, the momentum of her run pulling her too quickly for her to plan. A thud resounded through the streets. She slowly, painfully got to her feet again and dusted herself off. There really was something wrong with her. It was just getting to her brain now. Her body wasn't what it had been only weeks ago. She couldn't even tell it what to do anymore. The thought just made her angrier. She started walking again. And her father had just found out? She found that extremely unlikely. All those tests he'd done on her when she was just a child had to have shown something, some kind of indication, that she had a disease. He'd had the best geneticists in the world working on her. How could they not have noticed something as extreme as that? They had to have been keeping it from her this whole time. There was no other possibility. God. Her father, the doctors... Almost everyone she'd ever known had treated her like such a child. No one could ever tell her the truth about herself, not now, not years ago, probably not ever. She didn't want to be daddy's little girl anymore. She just wanted to be Gaia, and to be treated like a person, instead of a lab project or a five-year-old.

"I hate him," she whispered, knowing full well it wasn't true. But it felt better to say it.

"Me too, Gaia, trust me."

That chilling voice was so familiar. It was him. Finally. She wiped stray tears from her eyes.

"Where is Willa?" she demanded, turning to face him furiously.

He was wearing that goddamn white mask again. Like something out of the circus. "She's fine, Gaia, just like you promised her." He said her name with relish; it made her feel sick to her stomach.

"Give her to me or I will kill you, do you hear me? I will kill you."

"That didn't exactly work out for you last time, now did it?" He laughed unnaturally. "And I don't see your daddy anywhere around to save you this time. So maybe you should listen to my demands."

She was silent for a minute, tight-lipped and grave. He did have a point. She doubted she could even take him alone now that her body was so weak and unresponsive. "Fine. What do you want?"

"Your kind of fear... Or lack thereof."

Gaia's strong blue eyes, the only part of her that was strong now, met his angrily. "What are you talking about?"

"Gaia, Gaia, Gaia... I know. I know you don't feel fear. And I want it," he told her, an excited gleam in his eyes.

"You don't want it, trust me," she replied brashly. "It's killing me."

He frowned. "What?"

"It's killing me. My fearlessness." There was no point in hiding it now. Even if it wasn't true, at least it would maybe stop him, maybe force him to give up Willa. "It's a genetic disease, and I'll probably die within months, or if I'm lucky, a couple years." She didn't tell him that there was a way to treat the disease; it would give him too much hope.

"You're a liar."

"No, I'm not. You can look at my medical files. It's true."

His cold gray eyes cast downwards, obviously deep in thought. Only a moment later they met hers again with a fury. "I don't care if I die. It would be worth it, even for one day, not to fear anything. I'm afraid of everything, Gaia, everything. I'm tired of being afraid. You, of all people, would know that."

"Why would I know anything about you?"

A little smile appeared in the slits of his mask. "You know why."

"Actually, I don't." Why couldn't this guy just tell her anything straight out?"

"Gaia... It's me." He took off his mask to reveal the sad, forlorn face that she'd come to know so well. Except now insanity was burning in his eyes, and his lips were twisted into a snarling grin.

Remy.

Author's Final Notes: Ahem? What dost thou think of this? (Sorry, I'm in Romeo in Juliet right now, so I sometimes translate into Shakespearean English. But... no matter!) The strange idea I had is slowly working its way through the story, I guess. But I really need peeps like you to tell me how I'm doing! If I'm making horrendous mistakes of Fearless, than tell me! Cuz I dunno, I don't wanna ruin it... (: