Fearless
Disclaimer: *stomps around the room ranting* An entire summer of running around chasing that guy in the suit that promised me the transfer of FFVII ownership and yet nothing to show for i- *stops and thinks* Waaaait, he wasn't just saying that so I wouldn't mow him down with that golf cart, was he? *strokes imaginary goatee* ... *glares* GET BACK HERE YOU LITTLE PUNK.
A/N: *sigh* I know, I know, it's been way too long. The annual summer quasi-hiatus is over, though! :D And as here I am at midnight-oh-thirty, without further ado, I give you a chapter of comical fakeouts in the face of cheating death, flashback revelations, and the setup for one heck of an explosion. So more news later; for now, enjoy. :)
Chapter 49: Words and Numbers
Five grinned suddenly. It was an odd expression, but not an unpleasant one, on his perpetually jaded face. "I suppose you're right. So. What's your plan of action?"
"Um." Diana stood up and looked towards the door. "…Charge?"
"Subtly? Or do we want crashing and screaming?"
"Stealth. To start with."
"Priorities?"
"Package is primary; targets secondary."
"Wait, you don't care if some of them escape?"
Diana didn't miss that his former comrades, if they could be called that, were now just more of "them."
She smirked. "Let them run home with news that we're alive and kickin'. All the better to psych them out with." What she didn't mention was that, no matter what these people were, theirs was a sad existence. And while some might view it as putting them out of their misery, she really didn't want to kill anybody she didn't have to. Killing didn't just magically become easy after the first few times; there was a reason SOLDIERs just went and cracked sometimes. She didn't want to feel like a murderer.
"True. So…we go for the intimidation tactic?"
"Yeah, basically."
"So stealth goes out the window once we've acquired the SOLDIER kid."
"Yeah. Zack's good with ostentatious. Trust me."
"Good deal. Oh, and, er, this door locks from the outside… It's one of those old ones that are virtually un-pickable. So I believe we're locked in," Five pointed out.
"Not a problem. Get that radio of yours out and give me an excuse to make some noise—without attracting reinforcements, of course."
"Ahhh, I see what you're doing there. Oh, and, on the topic of launching an attack—I almost forgot about this—here." Five stood up and reached around his side, unhooking a small pack that was clipped to his belt. He offered it to Diana. "Miss this?"
"I wondered who took that!" she cried, taking it and undoing the zipper. "Sweet, it's all here. Thanks for, ah, confiscating this," she joked, poking around the contents of the bag that was usually strapped flat to her belt. "Oh, man, I've been looking for a chance to use these." She finally produced a small bundle of black leather and metal without impaling her digits on anything. Pulling the gloves on happily, she gratefully admired them. They had been a late birthday present from Tifa, who had seen them in a store and thought of Diana in an instant. They were black leather and had cut-off fingers, like the ones Diana already owned, but these had steel plating on the knuckles. Practical and painful. Not to mention the quality was much better than what Diana had been able to afford when she first came to Midgar. Hey, Tifa had one heck of a tip cache going from the bar. Diana sometimes briefly wondered how her friend's revenue compared to a SOLDIER's pay, but always ended up just cringing and not wanting to think about it.
"You're welcome. Those look…damaging," Five remarked, watching Diana flex her fingers and reattach the bag to her belt, still full to bursting with other small, razor-sharp paraphernalia.
"That's the idea. Okay, now let's do some false alarming."
"Agreed." He punched in the buttons on the radio for channel ten. "Ten? Are you there? I'm giving a status update." There were a few seconds of silence except for the static. He continued in order to get Ten's attention, "A mildly urgent status update—!"
"What is it?" barked Ten from the other end. "Is the girl giving you trouble?"
"Well, that's one way to put it—"
Diana took this as her cue to wind up and punch the door solidly just below the knob, causing the entire thing to begin to splinter loudly in a spider web pattern.
"What was that?" Ten roared. "I thought she was subdued—"
"Well, yes, but she's attempting to escape her chains, and anyhow, the tranquilizer wore off a while ago. Hasn't it for the second target as well?"
Smart, Diana thought, drawing back again. He's getting information in the process.
"Yes—but—he's not making nearly as much of a racket as—" His spluttering was interrupted by another, louder impact from Five's end.
Five gave Diana an appreciative thumbs-up at her overly dramatic spinning kick that had actually knocked out a section comprising about a third of the two-inch-thick door. "Sorry, what was that? I think Target One just almost gave herself a concussion along with a hole in the wall—" Diana had to keep from laughing out loud.
"A hole in the—no, never mind. Are you in need of backup?" Ten demanded.
"Not at all, Ten, she can't move too much with those chains—hang on—" He backhanded the wall casually but solidly. "All right, she's unconscious, I put her out. So much trouble, honestly… Are you sure we haven't gotten the call from base to move out yet?"
Diana had been wondering the same thing. Surely the men would be instructed to move the captives off location as soon as possible. And wasn't that kind of the golden rule if you got kidnapped—don't let yourself be moved?
Ten looked at his radio in mild concern, in the building just next door. "No, nothing from channel one. Nothing from four, seven, eight, or nine, either, actually. Are you sure she's been immobile the whole time there?"
"How would she not be? Except for the Eight thing—his radio was probably crushed on impact."
"Ah. True. So no word from Four, Seven, or Nine?"
"No word from anyone at all."
In truth, part of the whole thing was Zack's doing. He had dispatched Seven's and Nine's radios, one when he was attacked in the street, and the other with a well-aimed kick from the floor not long after he had woken up. But even he wasn't entirely sure of this.
"I see. Exercise caution; I don't care if she's unconscious or not. Radio if you pick up on channel one."
"Ten four."
The radio clicked off, and it was a good thing, because Diana snorted audibly. "Doesn't it get confusing using number codes if you all identify by number?" She made a face. "Why don't you have names, anyhow?"
He smiled wryly. "Are you kidding? That'd make us people, and we're only test subjects."
She cast her eyes downward and pressed her lips together tightly. "Hmph. Well, that settles it—after getting Zack, escaping, and getting help for you, the next thing on the agenda is to hunt down some white labcoats and beat the crap out of whatever's inside them."
He barked a laugh at the way she put it, then drew his gun and walked towards the door, which was now swinging freely on what was left of its hinges. "You don't do anything halfway, do you?" he muttered, checking the hall for anyone who might have been slow in locating the commotion. No one was there, but that didn't mean it was going to stay that way. "The stairs creak. A lot," he warned her. "Okay. So the layout is, they're guarding these two buildings that are side by side. From the street, we're on the right, on the third of four floors. No basement. Go down three half-flights and there's a front door, a hall that leads to two rooms, and a back door out one of those rooms. That front door goes to an alley in between the two buildings, with a guard at each end of it."
"And I don't suppose we know the layout of the other building where Zack is, do we?" Diana asked glumly.
"Well, actually," Five corrected her brightly, "they happen to be mirror images of each other. No guarantees on the décor—" he gestured around expansively at the creaky floorboards, barren walls, and crooked stair rail— "but the structure is the same."
"And he's being kept…?"
"Probably the same place as you. The fourth floor would be too close to the roof, hence potential escape—"
"And it would be too easy to get to the ground floor from the second," Diana finished.
He snapped his fingers. "Exactly. I'd say we have a pretty good idea, then. The only thing is, except for the two in the alley and Ten up there with Zack, I have no idea where the rest of them will be." He grimaced apologetically.
Diana clapped him on the shoulder. "Hey. Thanks."
"Yeah—wait, what?" His brow wrinkled in confusion. That had hardly been a proper response…
"I said thanks. Take it or leave it." Diana quirked a half-smile at him.
"Er. Sure, no problem, but what for, exactly?"
She looked him dead in the eyes. "For picking a side."
Zack glared at the back of the guy that was supposed to be guarding him, and rolled his eyes. Of course they had no signal from a third of their forces; the guys he'd seen so far barely seemed to know their way around a communication device. Now, the weapons; those were more natural in their hands. Trained to kill, not to use technology, he thought grimly.
He began to struggle again when the universal sounds of things being broken came through the static of the radio from Diana's end. A growl rose in his throat when he heard the solid thunk that supposedly knocked her unconscious. But he nearly cracked up in sarcastic laughter when the guy in the room said something about not caring whether Diana was conscious or not; she was still dangerous. Damn straight she is, he thought proudly, again wriggling his hands in vain. In his opinion, it would've been smarter to bind his hands together in front of him so they could see what he was doing if he tried to get out of these weird cable chains, but apparently his captors did not share his feelings. Weird, but effective. He pulled a wry face.
And for once, he couldn't see a way out of this one. Even his final deadly weapon had been taken from him: his natural gift for mouthing off.
He would have been firing off smart comments and profanities nonstop, doing anything he could to provoke or trick anyone and everyone within earshot. But evidently they had anticipated something like that, so as soon as he struck up a mostly one-sided conversation with an enemy with a short sword that came by, they cut off his rant about swords and techniques and (somehow) noodles by gagging him. And it tasted like feet that had spent a little too much time in a dumpster. Ugh.
But I bet you sure are lost without your boss, or whoever's giving orders. He grinned wolfishly around the gag at the guy's back. There's always an opening, somewhere. Just wait til I get one. You'll be so in for it…
Five strode confidently out into the alley, while Diana stood with her back to the wall next to the door. Now was the time for tact; they would get their chance to be almost shamefully dramatic and ostentatious soon enough.
Diana glanced around, leaning forward a bit to see into the next room. One of the men—Eleven, according to Five—had been standing guard on the ground floor. She had taken him down quietly with a pressure-point pinch, and thankfully he didn't give any indication that he had heard the whispered conversations upstairs. If he had, he must have assumed that the prisoner was only being taunted.
He was now unconscious, propped up behind a mound of dusty furniture and cardboard boxes in one of the two ground level rooms.
"Seven!" Five barked at the man visible at the end of the alley. Oh, even better—he's one that's lost signal.
Seven whirled around. After all, Five was older than him, by about a month. "Five. I've lost radio contact with everyone."
"Have you kept your post?" Five asked sternly.
"Yes."
"Good man. Now, new orders. You and Nine are down here, right?"
"Yes, just us at the moment. Six, Twelve, Fourteen, and Fifteen are securing the perimeter."
And even better. "We need you and Nine to join them. We caught wind that those two have friends in the city, and they may well be plotting something…foolish…to try to secure their rescue. Let nothing and no one in past you," Five ordered.
"Of course. On my way." And Seven trotted off obediently, hailing Nine at the corner and pointing down the street. They ran off together, splitting at the next crossroads.
Five waited fifteen seconds before flicking two fingers forward behind his back: the okay signal. Diana made sure that Eleven was safely hidden, and crept out into the street.
"I just had a thought," Five informed her as she approached, acting as a visual in Diana's few blind spots. "What if you do have friends in the city who might come charging in here, only to be apprehended and possibly killed by what looks like an assassination group?"
"Are you kidding? No one saw me come this far," Diana declared, quite sure of herself. "I would've thrown off anyone who happened to look at me—well, except for your guy. He was pretty good," she acknowledged grudgingly. "Zack I don't know about, but people aren't exactly apt to follow SOLDIERs, or be curious. They…generally avoid us unless they take the time to reserve judgment. And that doesn't happen often," she sighed grimly, then lowered her voice partially out of force of habit and partially out of general caution to errant ears. "Sometimes I wonder how the people will react once there's a woman in a SOLDIER uniform wandering around." She laughed softly. "Provided, of course, that I survive the process."
"I'll be interested to see that," Five replied. And he would see it, with any luck at all. Never mind physical deterioration—provided that he survived the process. The thing was, he knew he was running on a combination of borrowed time and hope. Not that there was much of that to spare, either. "I hope I get the chance one day.
But, er…" he amended, wincing slightly as he and Diana backed up to the wall of the building where Zack was. "I have a confession to make. I was the one who tailed you. I signed up for it so I'd know what I was doing!" he defended himself when Diana arched an eyebrow.
"…Yeah, okay, I guess that makes sense," she allowed.
"And, uh, I was also—don't look at me like that—I was kind of undercover in the SOLDIER barracks…?"
"WHAT?" Diana whisper-screamed, remembering to do the former at the last possible second. "You were right there and never thought to, I don't know, tip me off about the homicide attempts? !"
"No, no, that was before I ever had thoughts about—" he stopped and sighed. "Well, before I had thoughts about much anything. Look, do you by any chance remember exactly a week ago, the twenty-first? What happened that day?"
Diana didn't see how that was concisely proving anything, but she thought about it. "Wednesday…let's see. Oh, man, that was the night I got back completely torn apart by those…monsters…" She narrowed her eyes at Five accusatorily.
He winced. "Well, that too, but what about before you left on that mission? That afternoon?"
"I…I was walking around as myself," she realized in surprise. "And that guy that I have a mutual pissing-off relationship with thought I was 'Devon.'" She stuck in the air quotes for good measure. That was only a week ago?
Five snapped his fingers quietly. "Exactly. He attacked you, and the two of you attracted quite an audience, didn't you?"
She laughed once. "We sure did. Surprised the heck out of him, for starters."
He chuckled back. "No kidding. Well, I was in that crowd. You probably wouldn't remember seeing me since there were people everywhere, but I remember seeing you beating him into next week and really throwing him for a loop. The thing was, I felt like I was analyzing a fighting style while I watched. I was infiltrating, observing the enemy. If it hadn't been me there, though, and someone else had been put up to the job…well, I probably wouldn't be helping you out now." He dragged the back of his hand across his forehead, glancing around and making sure they were still out of sight against the side of the building. "I think something just kind of… clicked."
- One Week Ago -
Operative number Five was undercover, and quite frankly, rather enjoying it. He was on a covert mission to find the Loveless girl—or, rather, traces of her. No actual personal contact would be required.
His job was to get a sense of the target. Her habits, her friends, the places she frequented of her own choosing, the kinds of things she was apt to be assigned to on missions. He really couldn't believe his luck, because just moments ago he had gotten wind of a fight in one of the SOLDIER barracks; and 'Devon' Loveless was involved. What were the odds of that, really now?
He was one of the first on the scene: just another SOLDIER, mako eyes and all, looking for some entertainment on an otherwise boring Wednesday afternoon. It looked like the fight was well under way, and the girl was up against some serious competition. In fact…
He narrowed his eyes at her as he leaned around the corner, a few men approaching from behind him to take a look at the spectacle. She looked awfully…well, female. Wasn't she supposed to be acting as a SOLDIER? If so, then why was everyone talking about Devon being in a fight? Her name was Diana.
Ah, but he remembered: she had been selling the story that they were near-identical twins. As if. Her brother was long dead, and it would only be a matter of time before everyone figured that out. And maybe, by that time, she would be too. It was what Five's superiors willed to happen; and happen it would. They were never wrong. They knew everything, and he was blessed to be in the position that he was in. He was the most experienced of those of his kind at the moment. Numbers One and Two had expired, and Three had been killed either by Diana Loveless or by someone connected to her in an attempted assault. Just a day or two ago, Four had begun deteriorating, coughing up blood and having bouts of mild weakness. Well. That wasn't acceptable in the field, and so the responsibility had fallen to Five. He had obtained quite an honor in this assignment, and he intended to carry it out to the best of his ability.
He allowed himself a small smirk as he watched the fight. This SOLDIER facing off against Diana would be in for a bit of a shock sometime in the near future.
As Diana turned back around to face the SOLDIER after coming out of an admittedly impressive sliding dive maneuver, a thick arm came swinging into her view and her entire body was literally backhanded, causing her to fly several yards down the hall until she flipped backwards and somehow landed standing. Her feet skidded back several inches upon impact, but she held her ground. It must have been like being hit by a moving vehicle, but she had probably had much worse. She ducked just in time under his next lunge and was temporarily shielded from Five's view by the bulk of her opponent, and she must have driven a fist into his stomach, because he doubled over from the force. Truly impressive, for Diana's comparatively small fists. It was only for a split second, but it was apparently all she needed.
If either of the fighters had been paying attention (it was probably a good thing they were not, as this would probably result in them being beaten to a pulp by the other within seconds) they would have seen the small gathering of SOLDIERs and cadets that had heard the commotion and were eager to witness whatever excitement was taking place, Five among them in all his surreptitiousness. But of course, they were only focused on the fight, and any outside distractions were automatically dismissed by the brain, Five reasoned. The mind was an incredible thing.
Diana brought down her clasped fists on the SOLDIER's back, forcing him to straighten up again painfully, and she helped him over with a scissor kick up under the chin that was made fairly difficult by his height over her. It was effective nonetheless, and she followed around his side, grabbing his dominant arm and twisting it up behind his back. She slammed him against the wall, panting.
Five couldn't help but raise his eyebrows. The tables certainly did turn fast with this one. He supposed she hadn't made it so far on luck alone. She was talented; he had to give her that. He must log that for later reports: is not to be underestimated.
"Now would you care to answer: why exactly are you attacking me?" she asked, looking like she was trying not to grin in triumph.
"What's that supposed to mean?" her opponent nearly spluttered, clearly infuriated by this time. "You piss me off the first day, and then—"
"Oh, I see," she said quietly. Then she cut off his angry spouting. "You think I'm Devon Loveless, don't you?"
Five smiled chillingly. Ah, there it is. He knew Diana would enjoy this. She appeared to love springing surprises on people like this; enjoyed being unexpected. Of course she liked coming out of left field like that; it was a rush to be the only one privy to a secret.
"I—what? Don't play mind games with me, freak—!" the SOLDIER began to yell, but she stopped him again.
"I'm not my brother, dammit!" she half-shouted, wrenching his arm back into place and shoving him away from her, several feet down the hall. She stood in place, arms crossed and glaring daggers. It was then that she noticed the small gathering of a dozen or two men around them, who were all frantically muttering to each other. With the exception of Five, of course, who hadn't missed the color of her bright green eyes.
An inarguably articulate "Huh?" was all the perplexed ex-challenger could manage.
Diana knew that they were all staring at her, probably in a lot of places that they shouldn't have been. Most of them knew her as Devon, and they were now taking in the different clothing and lack of Third Class uniform, the voice that was definitely female despite the fairly low register, the subtle curves.
There was a second of hushed silence, and then a male voice came out of the crowd, not far from Five. "That's hot," it proclaimed.
Diana appeared to resist the urge to react more strongly, for she merely exhaled hard as Five rolled his eyes. Leave it to a bunch of bored SOLDIERs to have one thing on their minds. At least he was focused on what mattered. He still couldn't believe his good luck at having found her so fast. She seemed to attract attention—well, all the better for Five and his…teammates.
"Pick your fights with a little more awareness," Diana was advising her stunned opponent, raising an eyebrow. "And—" She stopped suddenly.
A man was stalking forward through the crowd, and many of the other onlookers were gawking at him. He passed through on the far side of the crowd from Five, and Five memorized his face, getting a strong feeling that this man might be important. He was right, as usual.
"Getting into trouble already?" the tall, raven-haired man smirked as he approached Diana, glancing pointedly around at the crowd around them.
Five frowned slightly. The two clearly knew each other. He also felt that he should recognize the man, possibly from his rapid briefing on important members of Shinra before he had entered the viper's nest. His memory rarely failed him, and he was caught up in the rare moment of perplexity.
Diana cocked her head to the side, seeming very much at ease in the man's presence. "You know me. I just go looking for it," she retorted dryly.
That you do, Five thought wryly.
The man barked a doglike laugh and came up beside Diana, taking one of her hands in his and smiling in a way that further bewildered the analytical mind of the observing Five. He had a foreign look in his dark blue mako eyes, and it wasn't a look that Five recognized.
He couldn't put his finger on it, frustratingly enough, nor could he think where he might have seen such an expression before. It was almost like satisfaction: the feeling of accomplishment that one gets after having reached a certain goal. But it was at the same time nearly like pride: believing that one had something to show for one's efforts and had something to be pleased about. There was something missing from the formula, though, and Five was becoming increasingly exasperated with himself for his lack of comprehension.
Five came back to the present events. The man had murmured something to Diana in passing. "So, what happened?" he then inquired nonchalantly, like the two of them weren't being stared at like the last living evidence of Gaia's creation by the crowd around Five.
Diana flicked a glance at her would-be attacker. Five noticed that he looked to be on the verge of a total mental breakdown.
"Oh, jeez…" Diana began with a touch of sympathy.
Both of Five's eyebrows went up at that. Was she expressing pity? Feeling—what was it called—remorse for having gone along with the act and beating her adversary? Why would that matter? She had won, after all, and that was what it was all about. Gaining the upper hand was everything, because if you didn't have it, you needed to either get it or pretend to have it, because otherwise you got dead.
Regret: the feeling of remorse for an action that is usually done 'in the moment' without consideration for the outcome, at which point one usually experiences guilt and a desire for repentance.
He knew that one by dictionary definition; not experience. He and his kind regretted nothing, for they had nothing to repent for. They were the perfect beings, the road to success, the beginning of a new kind of existence.
But hadn't they been told that the Loveless children were like them?
Failed versions of them, sure enough; too simply human to be truly successful. But still. Was that enough to set them apart? Five knew his emotions by use of a thick book with tabs for the letters of the alphabet: the same way he had learned to read, only weeks after his creation. He was created, not born, unlike mere humans. Perhaps in beings more human than him, those things called feelings had longer to fester, to permeate the brain, to become more potent in the hypothalamus until the being's actions were ruled purely by these feelings.
Avarice. Belligerence. Craving. Devotion. Empathy. Frivolity. Greed.
He went through the alphabet, as though rifling through the dictionary.
Hubris. Indifference. Jealousy. Kindness. Meticulousness. Naivete. Optimism. Pride.
Humans did like to think they were always right. And it was often their downfall.
Quarrelsomeness. Righteousness. Sloth. Trust. Unimaginativeness. Voracity.
They were also given to violence, allowing things to get away from them just too easily.
Wrath. Extravagance. Yearning. Zeal.
But wait. He had forgotten one. Which letter—L.
Lamentation lawfulness lethargy liability longing love loyalty
Wait. Again.
Grief truth laziness responsibility desire love fidelity
There it was again.
Love.
Was that the word he had been looking for? The one he couldn't place. It made sense—it was one of those weak human emotions, as far as he could tell. One that made people do extremely foolish things for their own foolish means and goals.
Before he even realized it, Five found himself thinking that it didn't seem so foolish, if that was indeed the look that he saw in the eyes of the two people in front of him. And he resisted the urge to shoot himself in the foot right there.
All these things passed in only fractions of seconds, and hardly any real time had passed.
Five looked up at the scene again, biting his own tongue.
"…I bet you two don't get along," Diana was musing lightly. "But, no harm done!"
And no harm was done indeed. For at that very moment, a thought crossed Five's mind that he would have considered pure, unadulterated sacrilege had he taken the time to acknowledge it.
Maybe humanity isn't really a completely bad thing to begin with.
- Present -
"I figured it out; at least, a little bit," Five allowed. "I started to think for myself, draw my own conclusions. Ask questions. Not out loud, of course; I would've had a convenient accident if I had. I got a little more human myself. And I guess I have you to thank for that." He half smiled at Diana, who was staring at him unabashedly.
"M-Me?" she stammered. "All I did was beat a rival up! You have your own revelation to thank. Maybe something triggered it, sure, and I'm glad it did, but—"
"No, it was you." Five nodded self-assuredly. "You and Zack both. I recognized that little human emotion for what it was, and, I don't know. Something clicked?"
Diana blinked and suddenly smiled. "Yeah, I guess it did. A spark doesn't take with nothing to hold onto, though, and you know what that proves?"
It was his turn to be confused. "What's that?"
"You all have a little bit of true humanity. Nothing can get rid of that."
"It can't be engineered away, because humanity is so real," Five recalled suddenly, remembering Diana's earlier words.
She smiled wider. "See? You are learning."
"We can take out whoever's in here on the way out," Five whispered to Diana a few minutes later, after easing the door to the building open. "For now, we need stealth and Zack—right?" He looked at her for confirmation, almost like a child. Something tugged at Diana's mind, and in a second she had it.
She remembered a certain unsteadiness in the steps of one of her attackers out in the street—like a man crippled in an accident and learning to walk again, she recalled. But that was just it. They were cloned, not born. Diana couldn't imagine learning to walk from scratch in an adult body, with the knowledge of how to do it present in the (technically) fully developed brain but with no muscle memory to match it.
Technically, he was still a mere child. All of them were.
And that was sad.
She blinked off the revelation and decided to deal with it later. She nodded in confirmation to Five, and he advised her to be careful of the stairs as he closed the door silently.
They leapt up the stairs in near silence, Diana behind Five, jumping three or four at a time and keeping to the outside edges of the steps to minimize creaking. They paused every few jumps to as not to create a regular pattern, and listened for any more noise. They could hear Ten fuming upstairs—still—but there was too much in the way for either of them to detect the number of presences or their locations.
Finally they approached the door behind which Ten was muttering to himself. Diana could make out a few words, and she strained her superhuman hearing.
"…take…damn long. Should've…minutes. Not…" An interruption in the form of a crackling radio. A gasp of anticipation followed by a frustrated exhale of disappointment. A muffled noise, probably the creaking of wood sounding almost like murmuring, and a snapped comment from Ten followed by a dull thump.
If Diana had just gone on the assumption that Ten was grumbling over the unexpected lack of communication among their ranks and taken advantage of his agitation to charge in with all guns blazing, logical probability said that there couldn't have been too many complications ensuing.
However.
Everyone knows that it's always the extra second spent listening at the door that provides the real kicker, so to speak. The classic eavesdropping scenarios. Be it an open window or an air vent, those little coincidences never quite seem like they're just that, stereotypical though it may seem. It does happen. And it usually results in a veritable explosion.
This was no exception.
And what Diana heard next lit the fuse.
A/N: Don't bother with seatbelts 'cause they won't be doing you any good - just hold on for your dang life! xD This is going to be one hell of a ride. And I know, this will seem oddly coincidental, like she just happens to pick up on a few words and somehow her mind jumps to conclusions - but if you've never experienced it, it's hard to believe. It definitely happens, though. Awwww, but the flashback part with Ten made me so happy! ^^ But actually! (Other than all those dang words in alphabetical order. If you'll notice, by the time I got to X I was like OH SCREW IT I'm taking poetic license and using an E! Hahahahaha.) And Zack. OMD I love that guy and his marginal insanity.
Okay. A lot to react to, I realize. I also realize this whole messy scenario will be taking up about four chapters lol, and all within like forty minutes of real time o.O But do your best, because I WANT those reactions! *stares around menacingly* I may be psychic, maybe even psycho, but I do not read minds! TELL me these things! xD Can you tell I'm overtired? Sheesh, first week of school and just...ugh. BUT. I actually have news and stuff for all of you, but I don't trust myself to make any sort of sense right now, so I'll just say goodnight, and I'll see you next time for the explosion! :D
