Disclaimer: I do not own, and if I did, I would NOT BE SHUTTING DOWN TYPE-0. Squeenix, I love you guys, but you're making me sad. Is this because your old boss hurt your feelings? Because you shouldn't listen to him. I think you're cool. *hug* SO STOP MAKING ME SAD.

Brevity

Chapter 36: Not Alone

"So, I'm confused about something…" Zack admitted, frowning so thoughtfully not even Genesis felt like being mean to him just then. "If that voice we heard was your guardian angel… why'd you run away when you heard it…?" All eyes turned to Mara as they realized Zack had a rather valid point with his question.

No sound came out when she opened her mouth, and she had to shut it and take a moment of staring at the floor and remembering to breathe before she could make her voice work properly. "Because… I haven't heard it in a while, and being reminded of that… hurt more than I thought it would…" she answered, cheeks turning pink from embarrassment. Honestly, she had the worst poker face ever; every time she told the truth she got so nervous she turned into a flustered tomato.

Suddenly it was Genesis's turn to look pensive as he recalled something she'd said shortly after her summoning. "He couldn't follow you…" he murmured, frowning and wondering why those words sounded familiar to his ears. He couldn't quite remember, but he knew it was true, somehow.

"…No…" she confirmed, just as quiet. "He couldn't." Something in her chest felt tight and heavy as the painful loneliness and blinding terror settled in, and nothing she could do seemed able to shake it off. Mara wondered idly if her concussion was somehow worse when the patch of rug she'd been staring blankly at blurred suddenly, and she noticed a dull aching in her head. But then the dam broke as the hot tears burned their way down her cheeks, and she understood, even while she hated it. Maybe if she didn't say anything, no one would notice…

"What's wrong?" Angeal asked gently.

"Is it your head?" Zack gasped, worried. So much for no one noticing…

Mara shook her head forcefully, not trusting her voice anymore. She had the sinking feeling the only sounds that could make it past the knot in her throat would come out sounding dangerously like bawling, and the tears were bad enough as it was. She refused to have a breakdown in front of these people, dammit! Of course, that was easier said than done, and especially when they kept asking her questions about the tears still silently trailing down her face.

"…You don't have anyone else, do you…?" Tseng observed shrewdly, but he was not unkind. Mara couldn't make herself answer with words, but the tiny sob that escaped was all the answer the Turk needed.

"Does it scare you…?" Genesis cut in, and once again, he found the similarity to past conversations eerie. He almost felt bad for asking when her only response was a weak hiccup that might have been a word somewhere before it hit her tongue, and he noticed she'd begun shaking as she fought to pull herself back together.

After a moment, she managed to halt the flow of tears and wiped her cheeks with her sleeve, not quite able to meet anyone's eyes just yet. Shakily, she answered, and once again, the honesty with which she did so was alarming. She wasn't used to putting herself out there this much, and she knew that if these people—her heroes—turned her away that she'd be too lost to find the surface again. Being so serious threw her off, too; her usual coping mechanism of utter ridiculousness was also out of place in a conversation with such gravity. "He was the only person here who really knew me… and losing that is terrifying." She swallowed heavily, but the words kept coming, faster than the flow of tears. It was almost as if a small part of her brain thought that if she stopped talking, she'd start crying again, but the rest of it was still too busy wondering which would be worse to try and stop it. She'd have to let it fizzle out on it's own and just hope that she didn't say anything too horrifically unrecantable. "Z's always been there, no matter what… so even when I was alone, I wasn't, not really… I could handle not having anyone at my side because I knew he had my back. I guess I forgot what it was like to be truly alone… or how much it scares me…" She didn't notice she was crying again until a tear fell into her now-cold tea, the ripples pulling her out of her contemplation of the liquid. "Crap! See, this is why I ran!" she shouted in angry frustration, violently wiping at the tears she couldn't turn off.

Wordlessly, the vaguely familiar Turk walked over to her and handed her a box of tissues. Flushing pink, she took one and cleaned her face up as best she could while she was still leaking. "Thanks, Crisis…" she mumbled shyly, and was probably as surprised as the Turk to realize she did, in fact, know his name.

"That's a neat party trick," the Turk in question answered with a grin, recovering quickly from his surprise. "Can you read minds, too?"

Mara found a smile pulling at her lips. "No, but I could probably tell you more about chocobo breeding than you'd ever want to know," she replied easily. She saw the questions brewing at that, and decided to head them off before they could be asked and she was forced to lie again. "I've met some weird people…" she explained, and in such a longsuffering manner that it wasn't questioned further. Technically that was the truth, if she was the weird person in question… though she wasn't entirely certain if she could accurately say she'd met herself; that seemed like one of those weird questions they asked in philosophy courses, and she didn't think now was the best time to wonder at it. There were other questions she needed to answer first. And now that she thought about, she had a few questions of her own. One of which would be easy enough to get answered, and while it did fall under the category of "small talk"— which she usually avoided like the plague due to the fact that communication with people had the tendency to make her a little nervous— it was a lot less awkward than the subject of angels was at the moment. Mara turned to the pilot sitting quietly across from her with an apologetic smile on her face. "And, I'm sorry, but I don't know your name…"

"Oh… Florian," he replied, seemingly startled that she even bothered asking, but perhaps a little bit pleased by it, too.

Her smile brightened. "Hi, Florian. I don't think we were properly introduced before. I'm Mara." She felt her throat constrict as she had to bite down on her lip to stop herself from automatically adding an introduction for her absent guardian angel. Thankfully, her brain was pretty good at distracting itself, and she soothed herself by taking moment to appreciate the fact that Gaia was a world full of strange names, and thusly her own didn't stand out alarmingly. Well, her first name didn't, at least… The only place her last name wouldn't attract attention would probably be Italy, and she was a long way from the land-boot right now.

"That's heartwarming, really…" Genesis grimaced, and with such disparagement that Mara almost laughed. "But we still have things that need to be decided."

"Like what?" Zack asked, and the SOLDIER First rolled his eyes at the puppy.

"Like what Angeal and I are going to do about returning to the Company, for one," he replied snidely. "And what we tell them, if anything, about her," he added, nodding at Mara. She sat up a little straighter, and Sephiroth noted with mild interest that she suddenly seemed more confident, self-assured, and mischievous. It was an alarming combination, he decided, and he could only hope fervently that whatever had put that grin on her face didn't land her back in the hospital. Or, at the very least, that he wouldn't have to be the one to carry there her this time.

"I think I may be able to help you there," she announced, her grin spreading as her nerdiness was once again put to good use. "But it's gonna come down to how comfortable and good you are at lying to Shinra." She glanced around the room, watching their reactions to her warning, and was relieved to see no one was too upset by the notion. Even the Turks seemed unfazed by the idea, though the pilot looked just a touch alarmed beneath what he hoped was determination. It was beginning to feel dangerously close to stupidity.

Finally, Florian's resolve won out, and he sighed. "Just tell me what to say."

Mara's grin grew a shade dangerous as she was given the green light. "Excellent… Ok, so here's the story…"

Genesis had to admit, as much as he hated the thought of playing the victim, this plan of the girl's was actually something close to brilliant. He wondered absently, though, if it only seemed so great given the fact that the mastermind behind it was usually not the sharpest crayon in the tool shed. It also made him wonder at the rest of her own story—which she'd carefully avoided giving any detail, or even facts, of—and how, exactly, she'd come to know the things she did that, as far as he knew—and he knew he was right by the looks he'd caught on the Turks' faces—were Shinra secrets. The Company was nothing if not ruthless in guarding their secrets. It would be interesting, he thought, to see if her knowledge had anything to do with the angels who'd sent her here, and, if it did, what that meant for the future of Shinra. He smiled as he reasoned that if agents of the heavens were being called in, it wouldn't be good for the man in charge. Or at least, he hoped it wouldn't.

Sephiroth was too busy picking apart the pieces of their alibi that resembled the actual events he'd been related and wondering at their significance to bother with worrying at the fate of a Company he was more or less ambivalent about these days. What was perhaps the most intriguing facet of their entire fabrication, he thought, was that most of the back-story they'd decided on for their plus one had, in fact, been thought up by Zack, and surprisingly, Tseng. He thought it was telling in many ways that a Turk was so ready to lie to the Company they served.

Mara was just relieved that the others had been willing to go along with the charade, and though it had taken a few hours to hash out the details, they had a solid story to sell Shinra. All that was left was to pull it off, and with her crew, she wasn't worried. Much.

The exhaustion hit her like a sledgehammer then, out of the blue, and the yawn she fought to control was wide enough to make her jaw hurt. "Can I sleep yet…?" she asked, trying to keep her hopefulness to a minimum.

"You should be alright," Crisis replied, and so quickly and self-assured that she wondered if he'd had his share of concussions, too. "We'll come check on you in a few hours though, just to make sure."

"Ok. Thanks, guys…" She fought off another yawn, and with a tired wave, staggered off toward a warm, fluffy bed calling her name.

"…You think we should tell her that's the bar room…?" Zack asked as they watched her disappear into the darkened room.

"Not until I get a picture," Crisis replied with a grin. After all, a good Turk always took advantage of future blackmail opportunities. Napping on bars just so happened to be one of them.

A/N: The weirdest place I've ever fallen asleep: orchestra. While playing my violin…