Fearless

Disclaimer: As UltimateFreedom and I watch ridiculous videos of Zack Fair's job at Burger King, we come to realize how depressing it is that I do not own FFVII myself. Or Dane Cook's comedies. But that's another story entirely.

A/N: As promised, we have the Genesis encounter! XD Let me know how you like it and I'm going to shut up now so I don't give anything away cause I have too big a mouth.

Chapter 12: Closet Issues

A few minutes later, she was tiptoeing through a large open area, trying to be stealthy and inconspicuous and feeling like an idiot. Then the sound of a pair of frantically running feet reached her ears and she stopped motionless in place, pinpointing the place of origin. …There. And a few seconds later, a man came pounding around the corner looking terrified out of his wits. He kept glancing behind him fearfully.

Diana squinted to see his face. Oh, shit on a sandwich with a side of pickles. She'd recognize that overkill of red leather anywhere. It was none other than Pimp-Master Genesis Rhapsodos. Fantastic. This was all she needed.

Then it occurred to her that Genesis, a first class and competitor and friend to Sephiroth and Angeal, was running and looking scared. Uh-oh. Big uh-oh.

When he saw her, statue-like, in the middle of the yard, he skidded to a halt and he if possible looked more afraid. What the hell? She wasn't scary, especially in comparison to whatever must be chasing him! This dude was so weird.

She then picked up on another noise, coming from the direction Genesis had. It sounded like screaming… Oh, jeez, was there a break-in? Something to scare Genesis like this must be ridiculously…

Genesis took another horrified look behind him and took off toward Diana again, apparently judging her as the lesser of the two evils. "Run!" he roared, ignoring the fact that he didn't' know this chick.

"What in the name of all that's holy do you mean run?" she screeched back indignantly as he approached fast.

"You don't wanna know!" He made a grab for her arm, spinning her around one hundred and eighty degrees, and she took off after him.

"Is there a problem? What happened!" she yelled at him. He obviously didn't care how he was addressed at this point, and frankly, neither did she.

"No problem! No problem at all! Just the prospect of imminent death on my part!"

"Please, enlighten me."

"I hate these people!"

"Spit it out, loser."

"…Ex-girlfriends!"

She stopped short, staring for a second before nearly collapsing in laughter. "Ex – excuse me?" she panted.

"Hurry, hurry up, here they come. Oh, Goddess!" he looked behind her in horror.

Diana followed the look. It seemed that there was a mass of screaming girls all in their early to mid twenties emerging from around the corner. Oh daaaamn. This would be something. Sucked for him! And her…considering she was now on the run with Genesis. "Time to go," she commented mildly. Yes, they were facing imminent death via Genesis' apparent hate club. But oh well. The priority right now?

"This way!"

"No, not that way!" she yelled. "That goes to my brother's dorm!" She looked appropriately horrified. She hoped.

"What?" He skidded to a near stop. Tossing his head at her stubborn expression, he followed her.

A moment later he stopped fast, having passed her, and Diana crashed into his back. "Well, 'scuse me if I don't' have superSOLDIER reflexes," she grumbled.

He looked mildly annoyed. "Really now. Anyone should be able to—"

"Boo frickety hoo," she cut him off. "Dead end? Really?" she peered around him at what appeared to be just that, except for two closed doors.

Genesis' eyes widened in affirmation, then he glanced back down the loooong passageway they'd just come down, at the end of which was approaching a crowd of running feet and high-pitched squeals. "Shit." He flicked a sea-colored gaze at her. "Uh, I mean…"

"Save it. Where does this go?" She briskly stepped around him and yanked on the first door handle. Locked. She just wanted to be free of this moron so she could go change and not get completely chewed out by Angeal! The army didn't like lateness… She grabbed at the second door and the knob turned. The door opened to reveal… A janitor's closet? How anticlimactic.

"Get in!" she hissed. "I'll go distract them…"

"No, I'll go distract them!"

"What is it with you SOLDIERs and your altruistic suicide?" she shoved him in the door as Genesis protested as loudly as he dared. Unfortunately, that included her getting yanked into the closet as well.

After a few seconds of stifling darkness with their breathing as the only sound besides a faint beeping that Diana assumed to be an air conditioner or something behind them, Genesis thought of something. "Suppose the door isn't still unlocked when we…" he trailed off.

She turned to give him a great sarcastic look that was, sadly, lost on the dark of the confined space. "Seriously? You are going to let a locked door get in your way?"

"Well – no! I just—" his face heated slightly and uncharacteristically, which, thankfully, she couldn't see either. "I never caught your name," he recovered swiftly.

"Diana. Not telling you the last name, for reasons. You're Genesis Rhapsodos, SOLDIER first class, no need for an intro. Now don't let it go to your head."

He grinned. "Okay then, Diana no-last-name. While we're stuck here in this lovely closet, I'd like to ask you a few…"

"Oh please, spare me the torture." She rolled her eyes, ignoring the fact that he was inching closer to her flirtatiously. Jeez. Could this get any weirder? She could honestly say that when she woke up that morning, unaware of where she was or how she got there, she certainly had not expected to end up later hiding in a closet with Genesis Rhapsodos.

"Why torture? The greatest things can happen in the dar—"

"Shush! There's someone out there…a male… Listen, your hearing's better than mine." She seized the opportunity to edge away from him. And besides, she didn't recognize the voice that she could hear among the incessant giggling that was drawing closer. Just another SOLDIER out for a walk…during training hours? Somehow, she didn't think so.

Genesis related to her, "'Who are you looking for?' 'Genesis Rhapsodos,'" in a deep voice, then a high one, laced with contempt.

Diana frowned. Airheads.

"'Why don't you try down here?'" The deep voice. "More mad laughter…oh, here they come," he nearly whimpered.

"Who's the guy? Does he know where we are?" Diana breathed.

"Don't know." The auburn-haired man became concerned. "And…where's the volcano?"

She gave him an odd look and poked his arm to let him know she thought he might be going legitimately insane. From what little colorless shape she could see of his face, all joking was gone and he was entirely serious. "Volcano…?" she prompted him.

"Yeah. Sulfur… Oh, shit! Bomb!" he roared suddenly, swiftly giving the door a powerful kick and throwing Diana back out into the corridor with him. The beeping, she noted in the back of her mind: the part that wasn't concentrating on hurling herself to the ground and covering her head as pieces of shrapnel whizzed past. A few seconds later, her ears were ringing and she noticed dazedly that Genesis had flung her up against the wall and braced himself over her in what she assumed to be protection. Huh.

Through the buzzing and ringing in her ears, she tried to stagger to her feet but mostly failed, slumping against the wall. Genesis was faring much better. Stupid mako. At least all those girls were gone, having run away, she thought. However, through the debris in the air, a man was approaching. Our mystery guest, she thought grimly. At least the bomb was small and very easily contained. It had been only for the purpose of blowing the two of them up…she meant Genesis. And who would want one of the most famous Shinra SOLDIER first classes dead? Gee, let's think. The emperor of Wutai, perhaps?

Sure enough, the tall man striding towards them was distinctly Wutain. He tsked softly, contemptuously. "What a shame."

"Yes, isn't it, though," Genesis commented airily, as though talking about the weather.

"Hmm. And isn't it a shame you couldn't have left your girlfriend out of it. Too bad. She's a cute one."

Diana was sure that her hair stood up at this. Forget the girlfriend misconception – or the ridiculous notion that she was 'cute' – she just wanted out of here fast and preferably without a fight. Keep him talking, she silently willed her companion.

"I'm glad we're of an accord on those points," Genesis continued. What points? Diana thought indignantly, while at the same time casually hooking her thumbs into her belt in the back. Just in case.

"Then why don't we just settle this the traditional way?" The Wutain soldier pulled a long, thin, very sharp-looking curved sword from his back. Uh-oh. Genesis did likewise, with his elegant, red-tinged weapon. A breeze lifted the hem of his red leather coat slightly. What was this, a bad teenage rewrite of a bad slasher film? Nope, because in a bad rewrite of a bad movie, the leading heroine would stand by dumbly: hysterical and useless.

The other soldier lifted his sword arm swiftly and Diana whipped her right hand out of her belt, bringing a throwing star with it. It chopped into the arm with a small spray of blood, and the soldier yelped in pain and confusion. It would have given Genesis the opening he needed, but Diana wanted to be a little more useful here. She approached him head-on with three quick strides and without stutter-stepping snapped a kick into the center of his chest. His breath caught and he looked more than a little surprised as she drove a fist up and into his stomach.

In a second he had gathered his wits, however, and apparently decided to fight back no matter who was attacking him. He slammed his head – his only usable weapon at the moment, apparently – into hers, making her see a little starburst, but he had leaned over too far to compensate for her smaller stature. She was able to grab the back of his coat and hung on like a bird of prey when his head snapped back again in an attempt to throw her off him, but it only sent her light weight flying over him to slam a foot into the small of his back. He yelled again in anger and she threw the rest of the force of her smaller body into the area between his shoulder blades, sending him over as she locked his feet together with one sweep around his ankles.

Kneeling on his back, she kept a tight chokehold on him for a moment. She gave him a few seconds to collect his thoughts, but not too long. "Now. You're going to answer a couple of questions for me. Firstly: have you ever been to the northern continent?" He was Wutain. It was an opportunity for some personal information and answers. She took it.

He gurgled and she let off just a little bit. "No," he gasped. Hm. How boring.

"Do you know of any who have?" she continued.

He shook his head, gasping for air. She released a little more. Couldn't have him passing out on her.

"That's too bad. Now if you would kindly tell me why you were here."

He remained mute. That is, until he heard the cock of a handgun by his ear. Diana had pulled it out and spun it once in her hand without changing her grip.

Genesis was trying hard not to stare. He really was. But what else the hell was he supposed to do when a slender, seemingly harmless girl attacked a soldier out of the blue, had him down in a matter of seconds, and was threatening him with weapons she'd pulled from Goddess-knows-where? He surreptitiously leaned back a little to see how she possibly could have pulled that thing from somewhere behind her back and failed.

"To plant the bomb for…?" she was prodding the soldier. He made a little indecisive noise. "Ahh," she suddenly nodded. "I see. You don't think I'll do it. Would you rather he be in my place?" She didn't need to specify the 'he.' "Because that can easily be arranged…" she murmured. Genesis had gathered his wits enough to turn his long sword in the light, making it flash dangerously with an odd reddish light.

The soldier's eyes widened a little. "I was just supposed to make sure it got you," he blurted.

"Just him?" Diana indicated Genesis again.

"Yes."

"And others later?"

"Just two more of the high-ranking ones, that was all they told—" His mouth clamped shut again.

"Oh really? Who was the other one? An…Al…" she suggested.

"Two," he corrected her without thinking, "Angel, I think?" he made a face, then remembered himself and looking vaguely horrified at the information he had just spilled.

"I see," she murmured in satisfaction. Angeal. That left the remaining target as obvious. "Sephiroth would be the other."

"No," he denied too quickly. She smirked from her upper-hand position. The Wutain army needed some help in training their men to be immune to simple interrogations. Not to mention effective lying. She could help them there, she grinned secretively. Then again, maybe they just got lucky with facing this one.

"Why take out the Fantastic Threesome?" she mused to no one in particular, extracting a response from Genesis himself.

"Gee, let's think. The three most famous first classes? A straight-up, to-the-point move. Take out the best."

"I believe I was addressing you and not your ego, Commander," she snorted. "But point taken." She reached back into the side of her right boot and produced a roll of cord. "I'm sure you can more than handle this. I've got places to be. Nice seeing you, Genesis." She stood smoothly, tossing the cord to the auburn-haired man. The Wutai soldier didn't so much as twitch a muscle. "Oh, and by the way…" she turned back to him halfway as she made to walk off, "The last name is Loveless. See you around." Ha. That was his punishment for dragging her into this! She strode coolly off and broke into a jog once she could, easily navigating back into the dorm building and to her rooms.

As she redressed, she thought of what had happened last night to cause her to pass out. It wasn't like she'd forgotten until now – she'd just had more pressing matters on her mind. A vivid image in her head was of her eyes when they'd looked like Zack's. Zack's eyes…she would have woken up to them this morning had she not woken up and gone all paranoid and gone on to attack him. Somehow she felt like that might not be so bad, to have the first thing she saw in the morning be Zack… Don't be ridiculous! Her mind chided her. Well. Still. He had pretty eyes. The rest of him was rather pretty, too, but she wasn't going to let herself think any further in that direction.

She whimpered quietly, realizing how late she was. A good forty-five minutes…Angeal would kill her…

By the time she figured which the hell training yard she was supposed to be in, Angeal appeared to have been expecting her. He glared as she approached sheepishly.

"You, Devon Loveless, sir, are going—" He stopped and whipped out his buzzing cell phone, swearing like a, well, like a soldier. A confused look overcame him for a second, then he made to pick up, giving Devon a warning look to say that the cadet wasn't going anywhere soon. "Genesis?"

Diana blinked. That could only mean one thing. Genesis was telling Angeal about the enemy soldier who had somehow gotten in. Wow. That really was kind of an issue, wasn't it? A soldier just waltzing right into the headquarters of the enemy nation's army—

A string of unintelligible expletives flashed through her mind as she realized something and she froze briefly before remembering to keep her cool. She linked her hands patiently behind her back to keep from shaking and noticed that Cloud had edged up beside her.

"Where were you?" he muttered.

"I'll explain later. I've got a lot to explain later, actually. Get Tifa to come to our room later, and make sure Max and Shane don't make an unexpected appearance meanwhile. Capiche? I'm having an issue here…" she glanced at Angeal, who had turned halfway from her and was deep in worried conversation.

"Will do. What's the current issue? To do with that, I'm guessing." Cloud jerked his head at the commander, his spikes bobbling.

"Yeah. Again, part of the explaining, but the short version is that Genesis and Diana," she stressed quietly, "encountered a Wutai soldier on the way here. Nothing in his way. Just walking around. We, er, I took him down of course, but that's a serious security problem."

"No kidding," he agreed. "And ouch. Bet Genesis hardly has a soul left, after that with you," he chuckled.

"What's that supposed to mean?" She elbowed him.

"Ah, nothing… Figures that they've got their heads all in a twist now, though." He reverted back to the more pressing topic. "To get in that easily, you'd practically need someone on the in…side…" He trailed off in horror at the knowing look she was giving him. "My Goddess. Do you know who might…?" He almost didn't want to even know.

"Dunno, actually. But what I do know is that Devon just showed up after a night of being missing, coming to training out of breath, and it's only a single minute later that the commanding officer receives a call saying there was a break-in during sometime that Devon happened to be missing."

His eyes grew more orb-like. "Holy hell. That's…really not good. Dude, your luck sucks," he concluded.

She nodded slowly, grimly. "And just for kicks, to complicate things, Diana was the one who took out the soldier and is now going to be nowhere to be seen or found for a little while. Fantastic. Not to mention that a certain Zack Fair ended up encountering Diana this morning whilst looking for Devon."

"Oh. Ohhh. Shit. Um…yeah," he said weakly. Just then Angeal snapped the phone shut and turned back to Devon, looking a little concerned.

Diana couldn't help but feel that he and Genesis had reached the same possibility about her disappearance as she had thought of. Oh, crap. Now what was her excuse?

"Loveless, you'd…better come along. No, not – well, on second thought, maybe you should come too, Strife."

Diana couldn't help but feel watched as well, as the three of them exited the training yard and made for the direction of the main building.

Three hundred yards, two elevators, and too many hallways later, they were in a conference room. Namely, the Director's conference room.

A/N: So, this was slightly longer…funny, yes! Review please my lovely people! :)