Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to FFVII.

A.N.: This was rewritten 5/12/09, and expanded from three pages to nine.

Somewhere in Wutai . . .

Yuffie Kisaragi, mighty ninja and White Rose of Wutai, had a plan. Unfortunately for her, her father had decided that it was less than sane when she had told him about it, and, in a rare move of parental responsibility, had confined her to her room.

This was not a setback, however. Yuffie hadn't snuck into her father's office and read all those long, boring ninjutsubooks for nothing. Seriously, these ancient ninjas were supposed to be heroes – you'd expect that they could at least write a good book!

But anyway, this ninja was more than capable of evading the guards her father had ordered to watch her. It was simply a matter of casting a sleep spell on the hapless men, and then leaping across them to a clear, guard-free portion of the hallway- definitely not a problem for a mighty warrior of Wutai.

Once she had escaped the palace room that had confined her, Yuffie immediately pulled out her PHS and a list containing contact information for all of Shinra's SOLDIER division. This had better work – she'd had to do so much bribing to get this list. She had practically had to use a whole week's allowance!

With an evil grin and a decidedly less-than-evil giggle, the ninja randomly selected a PHS number off the list and started texting. Would the SOLDIER be dumb enough to fall for her rather transparent trick? She wholeheartedly hoped he would be.

For Wutai!

The Shinra Building, Midgar

Genesis Rhapsodos irritatedly looked up from his seemingly endless paperwork as his PHS buzzed loudly. He hadn't been having a very good day – Lazard had decided that Genesis needed to do his paperwork in addition to Genesis' own –, and the last thing he wanted at the moment was a phone call.

The SOLDIER leveled one of his infamous death glares at the accursed device, silently willing it to spontaneously combust, and therefore stop ringing.

The PHS did not obey.

Snarling with frustration, Genesis flipped open the PHS, violently enough to cause an audible snapping noise. He had broken several phones in this manner, but he didn't really care- after all, the company did replace them free of charge, and the infernal things deserved painful deaths.

The SOLDIER hostilely glared at the small, glowing screen.

One text message.

Sighing, Genesis exasperatedly sat back in his chair- it was probably Zackary Fair again. Ever since he and Zack had been introduced to each other – courtesy of their mutual friend Angeal – Zack had been inexplicably sending him mail messages about the most mundane things, such as how Zack's training had been going and how Angeal's plants were growing. Genesis had dropped several rather obvious hints that he did not wish to continue the acquaintance, but Zack had been too absorbed in his own pointless existence to pick them up. Fair seemed to think that everyone should know his entire life story – as if Genesis even cared.

The SOLDIER rested his throbbing head on his palm, wondering what he had ever done to the goddess to offend her so. No-one, not even Hojo, deserved having Zack inflicted upon them.

. . . Well, maybe the person who had assigned him this seemingly-infinite paperwork did, but Genesis had learned (the hard way) that it was better not to offend your superiors, so he didn't tell anyone. He had no wish to repeat certain . . . incidents . . . that had occurred the last time he'd aroused the rather fearsome wrath of Lazard.

Sighing in resignation, Genesis opened the message.

Surprisingly – and thankfully –, the mail was not from Zack. Rather, it was from the aforementioned Lazard, who instructed him to go to a recently discovered cave system near Corel and clear it of monsters. He was to use nothing but materia, which preferably would be mastered.

A rather odd request, Genesis thought, but Lazard must have a reason for it. Some of the missions he had been sent on recently had been quite ridiculous- only a few weeks ago, he had been shipped off to Kalm and told to destroy an enormous arachnoid robot (he vaguely recalled it having been called a 'Black Widow' or something of that sort) using nothing but experimental materia, most of which hadn't functioned.

Curiously enough, the text message looked as if it had been sent anonymously, but the SOLDIER gave no thought to the matter. Perhaps Lazard simply hadn't felt like logging in, or maybe the man's phone wasn't working correctly. Either way, it was of no consequence to him.

Picking up his sword – which had been propped up against his mahogany desk – in a single fluid movement, Genesis strode unhurriedly out of his office, heading for the company's helicopter hangars.

A cave system near Corel

Genesis trudged heavily across a natural stone bridge, clutching a mastered Tri-Fire and warily eyeing a suspicious-looking patch of boulders. The caverns were bristling with malicious creatures, which took apparent delight in leaping out at him when he was least expecting it.

The auburn-haired man absentmindedly wondered if the company would pay for his institutionalization and treatment if he had a mental breakdown.

Unfortunately for him and his mental condition, a Mover chose that exact moment to pop out from behind the cluster of stones that he had been paying close attention to just a moment ago.

The SOLDIER let out a hiss of surprise, and, instantly recovering, nimbly danced backwards and just managed to avoid the orange, rubber-ball-like creature's vicious attack. The thing immediately bounced forwards, keeping him within easy striking distance. It seemed to hesitate for a moment, then once again lurched forwards, aiming for his stomach.

Genesis leaped backwards, away from the creature, and then sprang to the left, keeping the thing from cornering him against the stony wall that stood behind him. Before the orange creature had a chance to follow him, the SOLDIER let a Tri-Fire fly at it, reveling in the sensation of the magic flowing through his fingertips.

The fiery spell made contact with the Mover, but the thing, to Genesis' consternation, didn't appear to be affected. He tensed, prepared for another attack, but the monster instead kept its distance.

Allowing himself to slightly relax, Genesis stepped backwards and away from his enemy, wishing that he was allowed to use some form of physical violence. Movers were all but impossible to defeat without the use of some sort of bladed weapon- what was he supposed to do?

Gripping his Tri-Fire materia tightly, the SOLDIER examined his opponent, looking for any sign of weakness, ignoring the fact that the thing was little more than a collection of animated rubber balls and that he probably wouldn't be able recognize a weakness if he saw one.

In the dim half-light of the cave, Genesis suddenly realized that the Mover was glowing a rather hideous shade of lime green.

Recognizing the glow for what it was – a sign that the monster was using magic –, the man dropped to the ground and somersaulted to the side, but he wasn't fast enough to avoid the Mover's spell.

An inky-black sphere of swirling darkness materialized beside him and smacked violently into his chest. The air was forced out of his lungs with an audible whoosh sound, and he found himself stumbling backwards, knocked off-balance by the sheer force of the spell.

Reeling, Genesis straightened, barely perceiving the fact that the Mover had bounced closer. He was so cold, and his head hurt so much. Looking down at himself, he noticed that the few small gashes he had received in previous encounters had reopened, and were bleeding profusely. Some even looked bigger than they had been originally, and a few new slashes had mysteriously appeared, staining his already-red leather an even darker shade of crimson.

He realized that the monster had hit him with one of its trademark spells, Graviga, and had drained him of a good portion of his strength and vitality. Cursing weakly in fluent Wutaian, he reached for his Curaga materia – goddess knew he needed it –, but then notice the Mover and its disturbing proximity to him.

Stumbling backwards, the SOLDIER turned from the thing and ran, sprinting towards the bridge that he had originally come from. Even in his weakened state, he still retained enough grace to avoid tripping over the small rocks that protruded from the otherwise-smooth ground.

A soft, almost inaudible pattering noise behind him let him know that the Mover was right behind him, somehow managing to keep up- though how, exactly, Genesis had no idea whatsoever.

Reaching the middle of the bridge, the panting man realized that there was no way he would be able to run away from the seemingly-tireless orange creature. He whirled about to face the monster, and struck it with another Tri-Fire, moving rapidly despite the protests of his aching body.

Oddly enough, the Mover froze in place. Genesis momentarily congratulated himself, thinking that perhaps he had managed to kill it.

Unfortunately for him, he hadn't. Why had he even bothered to raise his hopes?

Beginning to emit a lurid purple light, the monster effortlessly lifted off of the ground and formed its three spheres into a triangle-like formation. Lightning crackled and sparked away from its spinning form, impacting sharply with the ground and leaving small smoking craters.

Genesis' eyes widened, and he roughly flung himself backwards, just in time to dodge the Mover's lethal Delta Attack. Landing roughly on his back, he bit back a curse and pushed himself into an upright position, ignoring the fact that he had probably just dislocated several vertebrae.

The Mover promptly cast another Graviga, green energy emanating from its levitating bodies.

The SOLDIER operative wearily ducked away from the swirling onyx sphere- and found himself flying backwards, having momentarily forgotten that Movers had physical attacks.

This was humiliating, Genesis mused as he impacted forcefully with a large stone pillar. A SOLDIER, a SOLDIER First Class at that, defeated by what was basically a living tennis ball? He would never hear the end of this if word got out to his colleagues.

Picking himself up off the ground, the auburn-haired man readjusted his grip on the Tri-Fire materia, and prepared himself for another attack from the Mover.

However, he was most definitely not prepared for the next thing that happened.

As the Mover charged up another Delta Attack, amethyst energies swirling around its floating bodies, a petite figure clutching an over-sized shuriken of what was almost certainly Wutaian design rushed out from behind a boulder. It launched the shuriken at the Mover, and narrowly escaped what almost certainly would've been its death- the monster's Delta Attack, which sizzled into the ground dangerously close to Genesis' location.

The thrown mega-shuriken made contact with the Mover, its razor-sharp edge neatly puncturing the monster's outer layer. Genesis, rather unsure of what to make of the situation, began to back slowly away from the monster and the small figure. Pulling a Hell Firaga out of an interior pocket in his trenchcoat, the SOLDIER prepared to blast either of the combatants into oblivion if they came too near to him.

Suddenly, the petite ninja – at least, Genesis assumed it was a ninja, though he'd never seen one quite so small – darted with startling speed to the left, avoiding a Graviga, which impacted noiselessly with the stony gray ground. Slashing with the shuriken in a surprisingly fast and vicious attack, the ninja struck the Mover, sending the throwing star's blades through two of the thing's bodies.

Freezing momentarily, the monster drifted gently to the ground, its orange spheres deflated and torn.

Letting out an oddly high and undignified victory yell, the figure turned to Genesis, who violently recoiled in surprise.

Yuffie Kisaragi!

Thousands of questions swirled through his head- Where had she come from? How had she managed to get into the caverns without being killed? Why was she saving him?

Taking advantage of Genesis' momentary confusion, a smirking Yuffie pulled a Sleepel materia out of one of her many pockets and unleashed its magic. With him being in the condition he was in, there was absolutely no way (hopefully) that he would be able to resist its potent effects.

Almost instantly, the SOLDIER began to sway back and forth, a wave of exhaustion sweeping powerfully over him. He dropped to his knees, barely managing to keep himself from falling face-first into the ground before he passed out.

As the tall, red-coated man slumped to the ground, Yuffie shrieked in triumph. All that lovely, mastered, important materia belonged to her now! She skipped over to his comatose form, and gleefully began looting it.

. . . is it just me, or is this guy a pyromaniac?

Genesis woke up with a splitting headache and a sinking feeling of despair. Yuffie had acquired a certain reputation during the early stages of the war . . .

Steeling himself for the worst, Genesis slowly began inspecting himself, fingers trembling with impotent rage as his worst fears were confirmed. A choked cry of fury burst from his lips- the brat had taken all of his materia!

Moving more frantically with every passing second, the irate Genesis checked the innermost pockets of his coat, the detachable heel of his left boot, even the hidden pouch sewn into the inside of his sleeve.

Everything was gone.

Spitting curses, he barely resisted the urge to punch a nearby object, and only because the rational part of his mind realized that the nearest object was a large stone pillar and that broken hands were something that was not very desirable.

A thought struck Genesis through the red fog of anger that was clouding his mind. How in the name of the holy goddess was he going to get out of the caves with no materia and no weapon?

A few hours later, a team composed of heavily-armed Second and First Class SOLDIERS ventured into the cave system, wondering how, exactly, an elite SOLDIER First Class could possibly manage to lose all of his materia and be forced to call for assistance and – dare they even say it? – rescue.

After being extricated from his rather precarious situation, Genesis was rudely herded into an unbelievably tiny helicopter – he noted that the thing was probably breaking several size regulations, weren't military helicopters supposed to be big? – and was forced to endure over two hours of jibes and taunts during the seemingly endless ride back to Midgar.

Most of the ridicule came from Zack Fair, Angeal's unbelievably annoying trainee, who seemed to think that meeting someone once gave you free license to loudly and publicly humiliate them, but some of the other SOLDIERS couldn't resist making occasional snide comments- even 'honorable' Angeal wasn't above making a quiet joke at his expense.

Gritting his teeth in equal amounts of frustration and embarrassment, Genesis leaned back against the helicopter's cold, steel wall and pretended that he couldn't hear anything and that none of the other SOLDIERs were there.

Oddly enough, it wasn't effective.

It especially wasn't effective when Zack Fair told a mortifying and rather tasteless – though exceptionally creative, Genesis was forced to admit – joke about him, a Bahamut QUAKE, and Sephiroth's disturbingly long and effeminate eyelashes.

Genesis winced, almost involuntarily – that was something he really had not needed to hear. Zack immediately moved a few hundred names up his 'To Kill List', and was now ranking directly below 'Professor' Hojo.

The aforementioned mad scientist happened to be on the list because of his shoddy taste in literature- the man thought that Loveless was a 'piece of drivel', and had told Genesis so to his face!

The auburn-haired SOLDIER spent much of his free time – besides the time taken up by reading Loveless, of course – wondering what in the nine hells could possibly be wrong with the greasy-haired scientist. He had managed to come up with around two hundred or so reasons, most of them involving brain damage or insanity, both of which were probably applicable to the somewhat less-than-normal Hojo.

Absorbed as he was in his own thoughts, Genesis was rudely surprised when the helicopter gave a startlingly abrupt dip, accompanied by a shouted apology from the pilot. It was that red-headed Turk – Reno, wasn't it? Tseng had spoken highly of him during the few times Genesis had talked to the Turk commander.

However, Genesis was starting to doubt Reno's so-called 'competency'. Had Tseng ever been in a helicopter flown by this maniac, and, if so, what kind of drugs had he been on at that moment?

The chopper lurched again, sending a rather airsick-looking Second Class flying off the bench that he was sitting on. Groaning, the man pulled himself back upright and reseated himself, all the while looking like he was going to vomit at any moment.

The SOLDIERs sitting next to and across from him started to edge slightly away.

Rolling his eyes, Genesis reached for his PHS, intending to send an angry text message to Lazard (what had that man been thinking when he ordered this mission?), but was not-so-pleasantly surprised to find that it, along with his materia, was gone.

Barely managing to bite back a truly filthy obscenity, the SOLDIER First Class forced himself to lean back against the metal bulkhead once again and focus on resisting the impulse to brutally murder someone, preferably Zackary Fair if at all possible.

This, sadly enough, was only successful because Genesis had no materia or sword with which to murder anyone.

Closing his eyes in an attempt to calm himself down – maybe those mandatory anger management classes had actually done him some good, though he doubted it –, Genesis began to mentally quote Loveless, something that usually helped him restrain himself.

However, the helicopter gave particularly vicious lurch, and Genesis found his concentration broken. His valiant efforts to stay seated were complicated by the fact that Angeal had slid off his own seat and was now clinging to Genesis in a mostly unsuccessful attempt to keep himself from flying across the cabin.

Reno screeched another apology from the cockpit, sounding, oddly enough, preoccupied- never something that you wanted your pilot to be. Prying Angeal off his coat, Genesis got up, just barely managing to avoid being knocked off his feet by the wild dipping and turning.

Grabbing onto the door to the cockpit for support, the auburn-haired man peered curiously into the room.

His jaw dropped.

Reno was simultaneously managing to play a portable video-game, text someone, and eat what appeared to be nachos with extra cheese. How, exactly, Genesis wasn't sure, but he wasn't concerned with that- his attention was captured more by the fact that Reno was somehow managing to pilot the chopper with his feet.

Either the man was some sort of genius or he was insane. Genesis suspected that he knew which one Reno was- and it wasn't the first option.

Taking a deep breath, the SOLDIER put a hand to his head, unsuccessfully trying to thwart off a migraine.

Reno simply looked at him and smirked.

Not even having to resist the urge to shout at the Turk until he lost his voice, Genesis dejectedly went back to his seat.

Why even bother?

A.N.: This might be the first fic with Genesis and Yuffie in it. 8D

Anyway, comments are love. Just a simple, "I liked it" or "It was bad" would be fine.