...Is it just me, or is now a startlingly good time to retreat from the world again?

I don't own anything, anyone or anywhere you recognise. Sapphire, along with a few others who'll crop up every now and then, are mine.

So... it's been... *checks notes*

Ah. A cool two years, more or less. Life, my dudes.

Cheddar, thanks for the review, and yes indeedy she does, but then that's par for the course with this cast of sorry characters. Zack or Cloud encounters... well, maybe not Cloud (bless his cotton socks but idk if Saph has the emotional bandwidth for another poor soul xD) but of course Zack will be showing up again!

Shall we?

Chapter 26 - Those Who Fight

"Until I have a sample of Sephiroth's DNA, there is nothing more that I can do."

Angeal and Genesis shared a look of exasperation - for the first time in recent memory, they were wholly on the same team.

If only it could've been for good reasons.

"How terribly convenient," the prickly redhead observed, folding his arms.

Angeal sighed heavily. "Doctor, I have to agree with Genesis. How come this is the first we're hearing of Sephiroth's DNA being relevant?"

"Degradation is the SOLDIER's condition, gentlemen, not just yours," Hollander appealed to them, hands spread wide in a gesture of openness. It deepened Genesis' scowl. "Professor Hojo created Sephiroth to be the 'perfect SOLDIER'," he mocked with a sneer, "which means that his cells do not degrade. Sephiroth is the key."

The most recent joiner to their cause cast a wary glance to his childhood friend. Genesis would not like to hear that, he knew. The petty rivalry between him and the increasingly popular General had been a constant source of contention between the three friends; back when they were all together, that is. He had his doubts that Genesis had buried the hatchet when he and Shinra, and by extension the SOLDIER General, had parted ways.

Surprisingly, Genesis kept silent, but for a rhythmic tapping of his boot. The familiar sound of creaking leather accompanied a tightening of his folded arms.

Following another sigh, Angeal asked, "How much of Sephiroth's DNA do you need, exactly?"

"As much as you can get your hands on," was Hollander's enthusiastic and unhelpful answer. "I'll need at least a few hair follicles' worth to conduct the preliminary examinations regarding the existence of degradation and the ability to map onto SOLDIERs of the G type, let alone the many complex tests it will take to ensure correct dosages, concentrations… I won't bore you with the details."

The SOLDIERs, already considering themselves bored, shared another look. "Getting Sephiroth's DNA…"

"Should be a cinch," Genesis interjected, the confidence in his tone a cause for concern in Angeal's mind. "I had plans already for the First Class apartments, a deviation to pick up Sephiroth's hairbrush should be of no consequence."

Angeal narrowed his eyes, even as Hollander crowed, "Excellent! How long will that take?"

"An infiltration of the Shinra building?" Angeal questioned, eyebrow raised in disbelief. "Without anyone knowing? It would take months of planning, and help from the inside, and no shortage of luck."

The redhead's eyes were narrowed, his smirk crooked, in an expression Angeal knew well enough to be further alarmed by. "Not if we have distractions elsewhere. Draw out the troops, away from the building, to another location. Perhaps, displaying a great enough show of force, of weapons, to make their origin unmistakable?"

Angeal scowled. He recalled a conversation where he'd asked "why Mako Reactor 5?", knowing full well that it was used by Shinra for weapons development, and without a trace of hesitation or thought to the answer, Genesis had said "I like that number," with an absentminded shrug.

How easily the man he knew best could pull the wool over his eyes. He stowed that frustration away for a future argument, deciding their united front was worth maintaining for this conversation.

"You're suggesting we have the weapons begin an assault on the Shinra building? And lead Shinra's forces right here, to our hideout?"

"What forces?" Genesis mocked smugly, earning a long-suffering look from Angeal before he gave a real answer, "Yes. With a convenient sighting report of one of their most recognisable fugitives, just in case they missed the memo."

"Right on their front doorstep," Angeal pointed out, aghast, "so we get the full force of SOLDIER, with the war with Wutai finally—"

"—What remains of SOLDIER," Genesis interrupted, his mischievous expression at last falling into something more serious. "We can handle them. And once we have that DNA, there's nothing keeping us here. Am I correct, Hollander?"

The scientist, uncharacteristically quiet up to that point, affirmed Genesis' assumption. "There's nothing here that we can't get elsewhere. And frankly, I wouldn't mind a change of scenery. Or a bed."

"So we're going nuclear," Angeal summed up with some disbelief, wondering how he was suddenly the one facing a united front. To their silent nods, he ground his teeth together and asked, "When?"

Genesis' smirk returned. "How long do you need?"

heeeeey –Anonymous [07:37]

want to meet up, luncj maybe? I'll pay ;-) –Anonymous [07:38]

*lunch –Anonymous [07:38]

[Moved 3 messages to Spam folder.]

it's Ciara :-) –Anonymous [07:44]

Ash's heart, already pounding from the unreasonable pace she'd set on the treadmill, skipped a beat. Without hesitation, she placed a call.

"Good morning, Ash. To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"Director," she uttered, almost breathless. "I've just received… an unexpected communication."

"Tell me." And so she did, cleaning up her exercise station before sitting on the end of a weight bench. The SOLDIER drank down water while Lazard digested her story. "That is surprising," was his eventual response, although to Ash his tone was almost comically unbothered.

She made an agreeing noise, the bottle still held to her lips. Unprofessional, but she wasn't sure what to add. He sounded deep in thought, and she didn't intend to interrupt.

"I'll have to write a briefing, but this could be significant, and time-sensitive. She volunteered to meet you for lunch today, there's every chance that offer could close if we push back even a little."

"The messages didn't come across as being under pressure. Her 'hey' had five 'e's."

"Was that common for her?"

Ash squinted as she cast her mind back, inwardly shocked at the realisation it had already been half a year since the mass SOLDIER desertion. "Not common, but not unheard of. The messaging style is very like her. But it could be anyone, they didn't address me by name, and they aren't a registered contact."

Lazard hummed, the feedback through the phone's speakers directly into Ash's ear prompting a cringe. "I hate to ask, and please don't feel pressured to, but… if I were to set you up with another couple of SOLDIERs as backup, would you be willing to meet with Ciara? Or whoever might take their place?"

"Yes," she breathed out, "I would, thank you, sir."

"Not at all," he dismissed warmly. "I will make the arrangements. You should write back to her, suggest… 8th Street Café, Sector Eight, you know the one?"

"Alright, I'll do that now. Thank you, Director."

"And to you as well, SOLDIER. Let me know when you get a reply."

"Will do."

You know 8th Street Café? –Comradette-In-Arms [07:59]

Ciara held out her phone to the former SOLDIER: First Class, looking overly proud of herself.

Genesis raised an unimpressed eyebrow, teetering on a fold-out chair with his feet crossed on the table. "Well, that was breathtakingly easy. Give an exact time, one PM or whenever." He waved his hand flippantly, as if his tone wasn't enough to express how little he cared.

"And, we won't be there, right?"

Suddenly, with a loud slam, his chair was back on the floor and Genesis on his feet. Ciara eyed his too-familiar dangerous grin. "Depends. Do you want to fight Shinra, or have a cosy lunch with them?"

Watching him storm out with his sudden electric energy, her mako eyes rolled as she tapped out a reply.

"Sapphire?"

I tossed a glare over my shoulder, "Some warning, maybe?"

Genesis looked affronted. "I knocked."

"Knock louder next time." The redhead rolled his eyes, as I dutifully ignored him, sinking back into the rhythm of my workout. Squat number… seventy-eight, seventy-nine, eighty, eighty-one—

"How long have we been here?"

Genesis, making small talk? I shot him a suspicious glance, slowing my pace as I answered, "Two months? Over it, probably. My back has aged thirty years though."

His slight huff of laughter made my heart stutter. And not in a good way, because that was a very limp joke, and Genesis was usually a lot more discerning with his amusement. "Have you unpacked yet?" he asked.

I stopped altogether, and raised my hands either side of me, gesturing to my room; as garishly furnished as it ever was, with two bundles of threadbare blankets against two opposite walls and nothing more. "…Yes?"

"Ah. Shame. Still, doesn't look like much; it won't take you long to pack it all up again."

The sinking feeling in my stomach hit just as hard, even when I'd been anticipating it. Suddenly it felt like it hadn't been two weeks, let alone months. "They found us again," I assumed.

"Essentially, yes," was his pedantic, and notably unconcerned, reply. My eyebrows rose.

"Essentially?"

"In truth, we're taking the fight to them. It's time for the next step."

My eyes rounded. Visions of bloodshed on the steps of the imposing fortress of the Shinra building filled my head, along with an onslaught of questions.

I wanted to shout. Anger burned through me like a virus, unrelenting and unyielding.

They didn't deserve to die, not like that, not on his hot-blooded orders. Attacking the building head on would only lead to a massacre.

They wanted to fight Shinra, and this wasn't the way.

Genesis commanded them the same way Shinra had; for personal gain and nothing more.

They wanted to fight the company that made them into something other than human. And they would die for a cause that wasn't their own, further manipulated and experimented on against their will.

My blood boiled, but I took my time, taking a deep breath, closing my eyes and turning away from the source of my anger. I wanted to shout, but I refused to, because my mission here wasn't to antagonise him, but to convince him that there was another way. Because I thought he wasn't a monster.

I was starting to think we were all monsters. My human façade was starting to fray at the seams.

Eyes fixed on a familiar crack in the wall, finding it oddly soothing, I took a deep breath through my nose and asked a question I already knew the answer to, "You want me to fight?"

It was a few moments before the commander responded, with a scoffing "No." As if the thought was outrageous. My lips pursed, and I whirled to face him. He wore that same cheeky, lopsided smirk, the one that I usually itched to return. Today, it fed my irritation, the feeling like prickling needles down my back, my shoulders hunching unconsciously against it.

"You remember the last time you tried to dictate what I do when you're off fighting Shinra?" I reminded, tone light and innocent but my eyes narrowed in challenge.

His own narrowed in response. "You're suggesting I keep a closer eye on you this time?"

"Clearly, I can't be trusted to behave. I dunno, Genesis. Something about you throwing peoples' lives away doesn't sit right with me, for some reason. It sure is a conundrum."

Genesis took two steps closer, his jaw tight, eyes burning in the dark, "And I suppose you think I view my soldiers as an expendable resource, don't you?"

A rhetorical question, we both knew, but the stillness was piercing after he asked it. If he wanted an answer, the least I could do was give him one. No reason not to be honest. "I've yet to see any evidence to the contrary."

He chuckled bitterly, "You don't know anything of war. You signed up for SOLDIER with no conviction and you fled the instant you thought you were in trouble."

"Yeah, and look where it's landed me. I lost two years of my life to that cretin, only to ally myself with another one, and his two greatest experiments acting as his apologists just to live a little longer!"

My heart ached. Tears threatened.

But I didn't want to be a monster.

"I didn't want you here!" he spat, fire in his eyes, before his voice fell into a dangerous hiss. "I would've taken you anywhere, and you'd have been safe, but you insisted. You played it off nicely, Sapphire, I could've even believed you when you said you would miss me.

"But the truth makes a lot more sense. The one thing I want most of all, more than the Gift of the Goddess, is to give my own cretin precisely what he deserves. Do please correct me if I'm wrong, but I suspect you and I have that in common. Why else would you, as you say, 'ally yourself with another one', if it wasn't simply the only option you have to enact your revenge?"

My eyes rolled to the ceiling, letting out a wordless grunt as the motion made the tears spill over before I met his gaze once again, crying out, "You're wrong!"

Quite unexpectedly, the crackling tension shattered, and stillness fell. The background hum of the mako reactor, usually unnoticeable, seemed to become deafeningly loud, punctuated by my staggered breaths.

It occurred to me I would probably need to try to explain. How I would put that into words was beyond me.

But the truth was that I hadn't come here to Midgar to be rid of Hojo. Nor had I come for my sword, despite it being promised to me, when Genesis was first trying to convince me that going to Midgar was a good idea - and, props to him, we'd been right under their noses for the most uneventful two months I could recall.

I hadn't come for either of those things. I'd come for…

Through watery eyes, I could see Genesis bow his head. "Yes… I'm wrong," he confessed.

I smiled weakly. "Fighting is stupid."

"Yes," he agreed, and edged forward, eyes watching me closely, as if he was approaching a wild animal. My breath hitched very obviously when he raised a hand to me, an invitation. "We'll take the fight to Shinra instead."

My lips twitched, but I tempered myself enough to get confirmation in no uncertain terms, "You mean it?"

"Of course. But first, you'll need a weapon." As he smiled, his entire face seemed to light up, the previous anger and tension written there now a distant memory. "And I know just where to get one. Care to accompany me?"

My hand fell into his, curling into the warm leather, his thumb falling over my knuckles. Closing the distance, I set my eyes on him and waited for him to make a move, as he'd suddenly fallen very still.

Unwanted and unbidden, the last memory in our safe space in the old factory in Banora came to mind. Genesis' intense stare was relentless on mine; those dangerous crystalline eyes of his would be my undoing.

Movement at my right startled me, as his other hand rose, and ever-so-softly brushed along my cheeks and under my eyes with the backs of his gloved fingers.

"Don't cry because of me," he requested, his usual self-assured tone fragile and soft and achingly sad. "I am undeserving."

My heart, freshly broken, skipped a beat when he leaned forward and pressed his lips to my forehead. His Adam's apple bobbed with a swallow when he lingered there for a moment more.

When my body eventually caught up with the signals my brain was sending, I dropped his hand in favour of wrapping him up in a firm hug. He was slow to move, but eventually I felt his hand ghost over my hair and another curl over my shoulders.

"Can you just take it from me that you are?" I mumbled into his chest. "Crying gives me a headache, and I don't want to have to endure that just to make a point to you."

Genesis stayed quiet, his answer in the curling of his fingers around my shoulder and in the pressing of his cheek to the crown of my head.

When his grip slackened some seconds later, I carefully stepped back out of his space.

When our eyes met, electricity crackled.

My toes curled and my stomach swooped.

Genesis' abrupt inhale was loud enough even for me to hear, and his eyes fell just a fraction.

Before I could think better of it, I took action.

I reached out, and took a hold of his hand, glaring down at the red leather with a ferocity I didn't know I was capable of. I focused on my breathing, slowing it down with a count of three, before risking a look up to the owner of the glove once again. His stare wasn't quite so intense now, his brow not quite so heavy. I smiled.

"Let's go."

Genesis had to give her credit; Sapphire really had a lid on it. She was keeping her head on straight. He knew he'd picked the right person to help him do that same thing.

Frustration, embarrassment, and longing churned his stomach and boiled his blood. Genesis would quite happily throw caution into the wind and pursue those feelings, but he was operating on borrowed time as it was, and he needed to dedicate himself fully to prolonging his life.

Besides… she was still here, wasn't she? And not for revenge, as much as he found it hard to believe, but here for him.

When she came to realise he really was the monster he professed to be, things might be different. But for now, she was here, and alive, and she was his.

All he could do was delay the inevitable, which appeared to be a common theme in his life nowadays, and give her some little victories that she could hold on to.

As they made their way through twisting, dusty, forgotten corridors in the bowels of the mako reactor, Genesis straightened his arm at the elbow - the hand of which was curled around Sapphire's, who had a remarkably unyielding grip even when her mind was adrift.

He ignored how much the thought bolstered those nuisance feelings of his, even as he drew her in to walk just a fraction closer to his side. Perhaps still leery after their almost-moment in her room (he couldn't really say it was their room, since he'd avoided her more as time went on, and hadn't slept in his designated bundle of blankets in a fortnight), she didn't complain about him drawing her closer, but fixed him with a narrow-eyed stare.

Smiling at the defiant look, he studied their entwined hands in lieu of answering. Her calloused fingers were dwarfed by his gloved ones, all curled comfortably over the back of his hand between his thumb and index finger. Her thumb was settled over the knuckle of his thumb.

"Not that I want to revisit our dispute," Genesis began carefully, "but I feel I should explain, for your peace of mind. We are deploying a very small fraction of our forces to attack Shinra HQ. We chose this reactor precisely because it functions as Shinra's largest weapons development and testing facility. A few of our SOLDIERs happen to be adept with technology, and have successfully hacked into and reprogrammed a number of their weapons, which we will be using as the bulk of our attack force this afternoon."

Sapphire's mouth fell open, before it curled up into a disbelieving grin, "And you didn't think to lead with that?"

Her breathless giggle took the breath from him.

She wrangled her hand from his to launch herself at him, her arms squeezing around his waist. "I can't tell you how happy that makes me!"

Genesis allowed himself a chuckle, albeit a slightly tortured one, and constrained himself to placing a hand between her shoulderblades. He refused to give in and press her closer (not that there was a need to), and ignored the urge to let the same hand glide down the curve of her spine. "I would not throw the lives of my SOLDIERs away."

The half-truth came easily. The young woman accepted it with the same ease, withdrawing to resume their walk, slipping her hand into his without hesitation. There was a skip in her step now, one that made her hair sway and her unrestrained arm swing.

The redhead wasn't foolish enough to think her cheer would always be the outcome of his white lies, but it did nothing to dissuade him from doing it again if - when - he needed to.

Genesis guided her to the least-used exit, a fire escape well out of the way of any regular workspaces. Emerging on the concrete outside, he tugged on their interlinked hands again, this time to stop her in her tracks. She pivoted to throw him an inquisitive look.

"You intend to knock on the front door of Shinra Headquarters?" he enquired lightly, flashing a mischievous grin when she scowled, looking away.

The look faded, and after a few moments of quiet, she returned her gaze to his. "That hasn't… quite sunk in yet. We're going into the Shinra building, right now?"

Looking away again, he followed where her eyes cast, seeing the structure that pierced the murky skies above, a great distance away and towering over them even still.

"That one, that one right there?" Sapphire's energy was almost manic all of a sudden, pointing to it, as if it was easily missed. A chuckle escaped him, as he stepped into the way of her pointing finger, taking up her field of vision.

"You'll be surprised how uneventfully this will go, Sapphire. You have my word," he soothed. When she didn't move her finger from where he'd stepped into it, he reached up to press her hand flat to his chest, ignoring the voice telling him he was indulging himself in her beyond what he should. "We have a man on the inside, an important one, who has access to a room with a window and no camera."

Her wide open SOLDIER eyes blinked. "Is it… Zack?" she guessed, her voice falling to a hushed whisper, as if sharing a scandalous secret.

Genesis' brow furrowed, his good humour dissolving. Why would she utter his name with such significance? "No," was his short answer.

Her shoulders slumped, and avoiding his gaze, she asked another question, "Is it someone I've… met, before?"

Ah. With her characteristic buoyant moods and casual sarcastic repartee being more prevalent as time went on, these moments of uncertainty around her history were becoming less frequent. Sometimes her more recent history slipped his mind, particularly as Angeal had taken the reins on reminding her of her former life.

Genesis took a breath to answer, but then realised that he either didn't know the answer, or had forgotten it in the long years since her disappearance. Angeal would know, he thought, cursing himself inwardly.

"I can't say for certain," he said, with a grimace. "Lazard is the Director of SOLDIER, certainly you will have received correspondence from him, perhaps seen him in a meeting or interview. Does the name sound familiar?"

After a few moments of contemplation, Sapphire shook her head in the negative. "Can't picture him, maybe he'll look familiar in person?"

"Well then, should we hurry and find out?"

The young woman nodded eagerly, so he guided her to wrap her arms around his neck, casting his eyes away to spare her blushes as she did so. Only once she had, and he had secured an arm about her waist, did he let go of that ever-present mental tether and allow his wing to emerge.

Amused by her efforts to look at anything but the unveiled limb, he said, "You can look."

When their mako-infused eyes met, hers wide and bewildered, he smirked before launching them into the air with a leap and a strong beat of his wing.

The air rushed from her in a gasp, but otherwise she remained silent on their flight. A journey of perhaps fifteen miles was covered in just a few short minutes, and while Genesis was cautious in approaching the towering building, the thick smog covered them better than any disguise could.

Remarkably, Sapphire spotted their target window before he did, and pointed it out. Not that Lazard was being terribly discreet, his nose as good as pressed against the glass. The metal frames of his glasses reflected the light from inside, which Genesis supposed is what drew her attention.

The Director of SOLDIER threw the window open wide and stepped back. Genesis caught onto the window to hover, waiting for Sapphire to ease her way in and back away from the window before he pulled himself through. Not the easiest manoeuvre for a man with a SOLDIER build and a wing. Especially with the latter; its abnormal structure and joints meant it couldn't fold neatly against his back the way wings ought to, and had to twist at odd angles to fit through the window completely.

He managed, unscathed but for a wound to his pride, and was amused to find neither of his companions paying him one iota of attention, choosing to eye each other up cautiously. "I had assumed I would be meeting SOLDIER Adams. Is this an expected change of plans?" Lazard enquired lightly, adjusting his glasses in a familiar nervous tic.

Genesis set his eyes on his former student as he spoke, "No need to be distressed. I have an item of hers in storage, and vowed to return it. I decided I would fulfil that vow in person."

Her eyes skittered to his, wide and overwhelmed, her hair wild from the journey here. He attempted to smile graciously, to hide the amusement, but judging by her scowl it hadn't worked.

"Also, if we happen to come across any difficulty, two SOLDIERs are better than one," he appended, with a careless shrug.

"You're a SOLDIER?" Lazard directed the question at Sapphire, his voice suddenly soft and contemplative, more at ease following Genesis' reassurance.

"No, sir, but I was going to be one."

As the director put a gloved hand to his chin, falling silent, Genesis approached the pair and rested his right hand on her shoulder. "We weren't certain if you had met in person, but you may recall. Sapphire here was once my student, operating under an alias, Cobalt Amell. She is our ally."

"Sapphire," Lazard echoed the name almost reverently, and removed his glasses to tuck them into his breast pocket, eyes wide and emphatic and distraught. Genesis' brow furrowed, but pressed his lips together and said nothing. "I must apologise for my part, and from the bottom of my heart, I am glad that you are where you are now, that our recent efforts were fruitless and that you were able to remain a free woman."

After a beat of tangible confusion, Sapphire made an exaggerated noise of understanding. "You mean, the Turk and the SOLDIER outside Midgar, right? Uh… no hard feelings. Seriously, it's… it's all good."

Genesis found himself well entertained by her discomfort, but his smirk dropped a moment later when she asked how they were doing. By name.

Angeal. Blast it, he'd told him that he'd only realised it was her two friends after the madness at Banora had kicked off. Just what had made him decide to divulge since then that her two pursuers were her old friends?!

"They're keeping well," Lazard happily divulged. "Both are out on assignments at present."

Sapphire was content with that answer, nodding with a bright smile. If she noticed his last statement was actually directed to Genesis, she didn't seem too bothered. It was a reassurance that they wouldn't have any problematic encounters, effectively disguised as idle gossip.

Not that Genesis didn't trust her to remain dedicated to the task – it was to retrieve her sword, after all – but history demonstrated she tended to get rather… starry-eyed around her former companions. It was better avoided.

And how fortunate that he had someone able to assist with keeping her old friends out of the way. No matter how mad the aforementioned SOLDIER Adams would surely be when she realised she wasn't going to get her end of the bargain.

Maybe Genesis could have explained that the one department head Ciara seemed most angry at was the reason they were able to infiltrate Shinra HQ in the first place. Not to mention he was the only person worth a gil on the board of directors; the only one who cared about (and who could actually do anything to help) anyone other than himself.

But Genesis admired Ciara's determination to inflict hurt on those who wronged her, Lazard most of all. And if that determination just so happened to make her pliable and easily convinced, well, then it benefited them both. He presumed that her anger could be easily enough redirected past Lazard and at Shinra where it belonged when this all blew over.

Disregarding thoughts of Ciara, he decided to interrupt the light, if awkward, chatter between Lazard and Sapphire. "Are there any SOLDIER uniforms stored in here, Lazard?" he asked, casting a glance around the room. A bedroom, neat and untouched, the air slightly stale; likely the former inhabitant was either preparing to launch an attack on this very same building, or they were amongst the numbers already withdrawing from the reactor, heading for their next home base.

"Not stored, but I brought a Second Class uniform with me. Just one, I'm afraid." The director stooped by the bed, dragging a cardboard box out from beneath it. Sapphire raised her eyebrows, broadcasting her surprise at Lazard's caution, but said nothing.

"Good. Let's not waste any more time. Sapphire, the sooner you're dressed, the sooner we can be on our way."

Genesis suppressed a smirk, as she sharply turned and sent him a cutting glare.

"Please," he tacked on, before letting his smirk show.

"Between the two of us, I'm the one who needs a disguise?" she grumbled irritably, but accepted the neatly folded bundle from Lazard's gloved hands, disappearing into the attached en suite on the other side of the room. The petulant glare into the middle distance as she passed him prompted a grin. It was almost like she was going out of her way to entertain him.

They were in Shinra Headquarters though, and they were here on a mission to steal away with a sample of Sephiroth's DNA. The antics would stop as soon as she returned.

"You two are close."

Genesis sharply turned, sending Lazard a cutting glare. "What was that?"

Lazard smirked. "Nothing."