Author's Note: Disclaimer found below.

Warning: Violence. :-D



More Human Than Human


By the third security gate, Dr. Jaxon seemed to have come to terms with the situation. They moved quickly now, weapons unsheathed, Loz first, Jaxon and Kadaj in the middle, and Yazoo trailing behind. When they paused at the gates, it was Yazoo that held the scientist, right arm over his shoulders, heads close together, as he activated the portals with codes and hand-scans and eye-scans.

"Thank you," Yazoo said quietly, close enough that his breath tickled the man's ear.

Jaxon shivered, eyes narrowing. "I'm dead if I don't, any way you look at it," he responded, a bitter note in his voice, his expression less angry than tired. "Probably dead anyhow. I'm not a fool. You'll kill me as soon as I'm useless."

Yazoo frowned with what his brothers easily recognized as feigned hurt. "I won't kill you," he said, nearly pouting. "I promise. You've taken our burden onto your shoulders. Killing you would be no way to thank you."

Loz glanced over, frowning a little as the reinforced glass door slid open. It was neither gratitude nor seduction nor actual affection that made Yazoo lean on the scientist like that...

They met resistance again in the next corridor. Jaxon simply crouched at the wall with his hands over his ears, eyes clenched shut.

Kadaj pulled the man to his feet when they'd finished, hauling him by the elbow past Yazoo and Loz as they scavenged the bodies for ammunition. The hallway ended in a high-ceilinged, circular chamber, more glass doors lining the walls, with escalators at the center of the room that hummed away down into another chamber.

Though they now knew - thanks to Jaxon - that the light that filtered through the dome above was artificial, they still stared, and wondered at the room full of light and ornamental plants. It was less than a mile of corridor away from the labs they knew as home, but it was bright and pleasant and entirely unlike the world they knew.

"Down the escalators," Jaxon said as Yazoo and Loz came alongside. "We need to take the tram to-"

He never finished the sentence. Kadaj felt him give a violent jerk and turned as he began to fall forward; Yazoo caught him with one arm. Both looked down - large shards of ice were jutting from his midsection.

The attack had come from behind; either more security, or the ones they'd just finished with had had Phoenix Down that they'd missed. It didn't matter. Loz was already returning fire, and Kadaj and Yazoo lurched toward the escalators, nearly tumbling down when Kadaj slipped, Jaxon still suspended between them.

Loz jumped out of the way of two more Ice spells before flinging himself down as well, half-sliding and half-rolling down the metal space between the two escalators. He tumbled to a halt on the tiled floor at the bottom, swiftly picking himself up and glancing about to get his bearings, sweeping his coat aside. He never could understand how his brothers could so easily deal with the long coats they'd been issued - damn things got in the way.

Kadaj and Yazoo were already dragging Jaxon into the first tram compartment, Kadaj slipping away to set the override controls; Loz joined them just as the doors slid shut.

The small train shuddered, then began to move, and was soon hurtling down the tunnel at high speed.

Loz turned from the door to see Yazoo sitting tiredly against the wall, Jaxon cradled against him. The Ice shards were already mostly melted, a puddle of diluted blood spreading wide around them.

"Told you," Jaxon coughed, leaning heavily into Yazoo. "Dead."

Yazoo glanced up at Loz. They'd no Cure spells or Potions, but they wouldn't have wasted them even if they had. "Told you I wouldn't kill you," he said quietly, smiling softly as Loz knelt next to them.

The scientist smiled back and made a sound that might've been laughter, if it didn't dissolve into sickening coughs and moans right away.

"Here, sit up a bit," Yazoo suggested, pushing Jaxon upright so that he leaned against the wall. When he was mostly extricated from the dying man, he lifted his chin with one finger, looking him in the eye.

"Goodbye."

Jaxon's face barely registered confusion as he felt Loz's gloved hands on either side of his head. It was simply too fast - realization only just dawned as the eyes, suddenly facing Loz, dulled.

Loz dropped the corpse; the head, neck broken, jostled loosely with the motion of the train. He didn't even look at it. "The zolkalter got you," he said unnecessarily, poking at the material on his brother's sleeve and finding a few rips.

"Hn." Yazoo raised his left arm for inspection, gunblade dangling a bit loosely in his numb fingers. "Didn't get a full bite. Just some venom leaked through where its teeth broke skin. I'm good for a while yet." A little blood dripped from his cuff.

"You sure?"

With effort, Yazoo bent his arm, laying it across his lap. "I'll sleep it off."

Loz frowned at the wound a moment more, then moved back, quickly unbuckling the straps of his shoulder guards and letting them fall away.

Yazoo blinked slowly - the poison must be taking effect, because he couldn't figure out what his brother was doing. "Loz...?"

Shrugging out of his coat, Loz took up his gunblade again and began to hack away at the lower half of the coat. "Gonna bind it up," he said, tearing off a few long strips before removing most of the material below the waist. "Pressure should slow it down."

"It's a bit late for that. Poison's already -"

"I meant for the bleeding."

Yazoo tilted his head. "You just want an excuse to cut up your coat."

"Hn." Loz smiled faintly, visibly relaxing.

From the control compartment, Kadaj looked over his shoulder, brow furrowed.

It was obvious, when they reached the far platform, that they were walking into a trap. The area was deserted, the claxons silent. The large room was fairly dark - the lights had been shut off, and the air recycling as well, from the feel of it - but with their inhuman eyes, what little light was left was sufficient.

They exited the tram together, Loz and Yazoo flanking Kadaj, warily crossing to the elevators on the far side of the room - but they met no resistance. No guards or SOLDIERs leapt at them from the shadows, no automated systems kicked in to lock the place down, nothing.

"This is too easy," Kadaj muttered, pushing the call button for the elevator.

They fully expected the next attack to come from the elevator - but the doors opened to an empty chamber, and the stillness of the room did not change.

The sense of travel, as the elevator car sped upward, was bewildering. Of the three of them, only Kadaj had ever experienced the like before, and that had been so long ago that he didn't remember it well.

They knew now that the entire facility was far underground. Jaxon had said so, and it made sense - the way the air became stale sometimes, and the lack of openings to the outside. And the way the lights determined day and night, with days sometimes stretching as long as necessary, rather than following the set pattern of the sun that they'd been taught. They'd noticed, but thought little of it, until Jaxon explained.

And now they waited, riding in the elevator like a bubble rising in water. Kadaj concentrated on cleaning the blood from his twin-bladed sword with his fingers; Loz and Yazoo reloaded and took stock of their ammunition, speaking softly, Yazoo leaning in the corner.

The elevator jerked to a halt, its lighted buttons indicating that it hadn't reached the top yet. There was no hesitation - Kadaj slashed an opening into the ceiling, and Loz helped his brothers out onto the roof of the car before climbing out himself.

A hissing sound began before he'd completely hauled himself out - the car was flooding with gas. Kadaj scowled down at the white wisps creeping out of the opening, then up at the shaft around them. This part of the shaft was long and empty - an ideal place to trap them.

There was a sound of grating metal; above them, a widening crack of light suddenly appeared. Doors were being forced open.

Kadaj leapt, feet striking the wall of the shaft for the briefest instant before launching again, carrying himself up in a series of small jumps. Loz and Yazoo glanced at each other; Loz nodded, and Yazoo leapt as well, landing lightly on Loz's arm to be hurled upward.

Loz looked up as his brothers reached the open door above, the light shifting with swift shadows and cries as they passed through. He didn't wait any longer - he clamped one hand down hard over the elevator cable, then twisted, shooting out the breaks at the four corners of the car. The greased cable went taut in his hand as the fourth brake released; with one more glance toward the doorway above, he shot out the opposite side of the cable. As the car fell, he was pulled upward.

He grinned. It was like flying. The air felt different - cooler, but more humid, with a strange edge to it that he'd never sensed before. Something like the air in the training room, with all its transplanted vegetation, but... bigger, somehow.

He blinked once as he reached the doorway - no distractions, now. The pilebunker was primed by the time he leapt through the door, and within two blows, he'd reached his brothers and passed his gunblade to Yazoo. Only one shot left in it at the moment, but it could still cut and shield.

The elevators were situated in a spacious hallway that opened, directly ahead, into some larger room by way of a staircase that parted in the center, the two branches flanking a large desk between. In the center of the room's smooth black tiles, the ShinRa logo blazed in burgundy and brass. The lobby.

Checkpoints blocked the corridor, with more at the tops of the staircases. Oddly reddish light spilled into the hall.

By the time they reached the top of the stairs, above the desk, the tiled floor of the hall was slick with blood. There was movement behind them, twitches and groans, but no further opposition.

The ceiling of the lobby was a glass dome - not frosted, this time, but clear. For the first time, they saw the sky.

It was vast, and wide, and... red. Something large was suspended there, all fire and menace, and it was neither sun nor moon.

There was no time for study; they were being fired upon. The three of them jumped the railing, taking cover behind the desk, reloading and returning fire.



Current Music: More Human Than Human by White Zombie



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