A/N: First of all, a few thankyous to the reviews I couldn't reply to via PM:

ThatOneGirl: Oh wow, thank you! Your review had me floating around on little clouds. I was with a friend when I first read it and got several comments about the goofy grin on my face for quite some time afterwards. So again, thank you very much!

crossyourteez: Thank you! I was so excited to get my first "feels" comment. ;)

And while I'm here, thank you to everyone else as well who have shown their interest with reviews, faves and follows!

The jump was like a dream. During travel, it was all perfectly realistic and logical. The moment I arrived, though, the experience became little more than flashes of disjointed impressions among swirling colors. Try as I might, I couldn't recall any details. I couldn't even estimate how much time had passed.

Stepping out of the chamber filled me with the strangest disoriented feeling of déjà vu, and not all of it was due to the lingering effects of the jump itself. I was back home, but at the same time I wasn't. The familiar gray concrete of the facility was juxtaposed with the disconcerting presence of Orca's insignia and soldiers. Everything was faded and worn, as if I had traveled into an old photograph. Even the people appeared weary and colorless.

The only exception was the device for interplanetary travel itself. Awestruck, I beheld the new and improved Gateway in all its glory. This version was an enormous construct of smooth gleaming metal, adorned by electromagnetic coils and ensnared in a complicated mesh of cables – a far cry from the modest one-person apparatus I had traveled through the first time. I couldn't even guess at the energy levels needed to power something of this size. More than ever, I was convinced that sooner or later Orca would set their greedy eyes on Gaia's Mako reactors.

I was thoroughly daunted by my first impression, but a closer look made me realize that much of the system was the same, only on a greater scale. The jump chamber was still the same domed shape as before, but now there was enough room for more than a dozen people inside. The antechamber was also much larger, and the exit was protected by a solid security door, hinting at the facility's new military management.

"Give me your helmet," James commanded, interrupting my inspection.

"Why?"

"You're in no position to question my orders, Therèse! The helmet. Now."

Orders, huh? My eyes narrowed, but I was well aware that I had little choice. Swallowing my indignation, I released the locking mechanism and handed it over.

While he examined Reeve's creation, my eyes wandered over the room once more, this time landing on the observation window near the door. I recognized one of the people monitoring us on the other side of the window: Anita Brandt, Victor's research assistant. The woman still kept her blonde hair gathered in a bun and her hazard suit, while visibly upgraded, was the forest green I remembered. She, too, looked older, although age hadn't diminished her beauty.

She also looked shocked. I guess she hadn't expected to find me alive after all the years that had passed, or maybe it was my unchanged appearance. Despite the evidence right before my eyes, it was still unbelievable. Fourteen years.

Unwittingly, James echoed my unspoken thought.

"I still can't believe it," he murmured. "It's really you."

He raised a hand and reached for my hair, but I took a purposeful step backwards before he could touch me. As expected, the proud man didn't take it well: his face hardened and the hand dropped. What surprised me, however, was the look on Anita's face as she stared first at James, then at me. Hurt, followed by open hostility.

James followed my gaze to the window and stiffened when he noticed Anita's presence. Suddenly, unexpectedly, I felt a something akin to physical pain in my chest when I realized what the silent communication implied.

It was ridiculous. Hadn't I already decided I wanted nothing to do with him? Hadn't I pulled the ring off of my finger and thrown it away myself?

It had been easy to convince myself of that on a different world, countless miles – or universes – from home. Now that I was home and James was right next to me, all it took was a look, or a familiar choice of words, and the good memories came flooding back with just as much intensity as the last hurtful ones. Despite the way we had parted, there were a lot more of the former.

James' emotionless voice pulled me out of my introspection.

"I can't let you keep this."

I whipped my head around in alarm, back to the stony face of my former fiancé.

"What? But I–"

"You'll be given a replacement. Let's not waste any time. I'll show you your quarters and then you will begin your work."

James marched out of the Gateway chamber, looking like a storm cloud, and so began a new kind of captivity. From the dizzying heights of Shinra's tower, I had descended to the depths of what was once our state-of-the-art underground research facility. Now it was little more than a crumbling bunker, ravaged by pillaging terrorists and earthquakes alike.

It was a crude, strictly rationed existence among the hardened men and women of Orca, and those few who remained of Cobalt's research staff. No showers – pure water was now a scarce resource in this part of the world. No coffee – I was told that the coffee plant had succumbed to the harsh environmental changes years ago. No meat, no vegetables, no fresh fruit. I craved Reno's cold pizza breakfasts after just one meal of canned and dried rations.

However, I didn't fully understand how much had changed until the day Anita acquiesced to let me see the surface with my own eyes. Where vast fields of corn and buckwheat had grown – stunted and suffering, but nonetheless alive – I saw nothing but a wasteland of dust and bone-dry, cracked soil.

"It's like this pretty much everywhere now," Anita said, her voice as lifeless as the scenery before us. "What's left of the human race lives in bunkers like this one. We're not sure what the population is these days. A few hundred thousand is a common guess, scattered around the globe."

I stared at the barren emptiness, unable to process it as reality.

"What happened?" I whispered.

"What we always knew would happen. Dust storms, electrical storms. Earthquakes. Good old human nature. But mostly, pandemics." She was quiet for a few moments. "We could have used you, you know."

"One person wouldn't have made a difference against..." I gestured weakly at the desolate scene before us.

"We needed every scientist we had to fight this," Anita insisted. "Instead you and Victor tried to destroy one of the few hopes we had left! What was wrong with you?"

I frowned, taken aback by the sudden attack.

"That was only because Orca–"

"Oh, save it! James told me everything. He knew what you two were planning all along! That's why he had to contact Orca! He had no other choice! If you hadn't been so bloody selfish, he would never have–"

She cut off abruptly, taking deep breaths to control the tears that already gleamed in her eyes.

"What? That's not–"

"And now you come crawling back when it's all too late!" she yelled, interrupting me again. "Why? Why couldn't you just stay buried wherever the hell you've been all these years!"

I was too flabbergasted to find the words, while Anita was too enraged to listen. She bolted out of the room and I was left feeling more isolated than ever, with my former workmate's caustic accusations repeating over and over in my head.

"You lied to her," I stated to James when he next came to the lab. I didn't need to explain who or what I meant.

"Anita is a firm believer in the greater good. She's stubborn and far too idealistic for her own good." He smirked. "Much like you."

Anita and I had gotten along well, once. Not friends, perhaps, but amiable coworkers. No one else from our team remained. I wondered if they had all died thinking Victor and I were the betrayers.

"Why the hell did you sell us out?" I snapped. "We could have made a difference. We could have saved lives!"

"Oh, come on," James scoffed. "You and Victor were fooled by childish dreams of a happy ending. There was no way we could have used the Gateway to find a new home for everyone in time."

"We've been through this! You know the plan was to buy more time with off-world colonies!"

"Get your head out of the clouds already! How were we supposed to find places to settle? What made you think they even existed? There was no proof! It was just Vic's goddamn gospel!"

"He was right, though," I insisted through gritted teeth. "He was right! You've seen it yourself!"

"There. Was. No. Proof! Back then, it was all just fantasies! A waste of time and resources we needed for the starships!"

My retort died on my lips. Half-forgotten discussions about the future came back to me, along with the tentative suggestions about looking into traditional space travel instead. At the time, Victor and I considered the idea unfeasible, and suspected my fiancé was blinded by the media-awarded fame and glory of the most ambitious engineering project humankind had ever undertaken.

Those starships were designed for only a few million people. Tickets had been outrageously expensive. God, I must have been just as blind as James not to see it coming.

"That's it, isn't it?" I said slowly. "You never believed in Victor's gateways. You didn't think we would succeed, so you handed us over to Orca in return for a place on a starship." My laughter rang bitter. "And look at you now. The self-made master of the Gateway."

James narrowed his eyes, his mouth pressed into a thin line.

"So, obviously something went wrong with your plan, or you wouldn't be here. Was there a problem with the tech? Or was it the lack of materials?" A snort escaped me as one of my old arguments occurred to me. "It was food, wasn't it? There wasn't enough left for a voyage like that, not even with hibernation. You stabbed us all in the back for nothing."

I had found a sore spot, but my twisted satisfaction was short-lived. James shot up from his chair and grabbed my helmet in a crushing grip, towering over me and shaking with anger.

"Get off your high horse already!" he exploded. "You think you have all the right answers? You think you're so much better than me? Don't think I believe for one second that you worked your ass off for fucking humanity! Face it, Tess. You were in it to save your own skin, just like the rest of us!"

His eyes were inches from mine and I watched the pupils oscillate in that disturbing dance I had seen too many times already. The James I knew was an even-tempered man, completely devoid of aggression and violent tendencies. It was the first time I was truly, deeply afraid of him.

Some time later, I learned that one starship had, in fact, been completed – after which it was launched in a covert Orca operation, carrying Orca's command and their greatest financial and political supporters, along with most of the supplies intended for all the ships put together. Humanity at its finest. No wonder James was touchy about the subject.

It soon became evident that James' appearance was not due to the years alone. The alien substance had aggressively embedded itself within the molecular machinery of his cells. It was viral in its actions, using more and more of the host cells' internal mechanisms for its own purposes. This cellular invasion had initiated an ever intensifying autoimmune reaction; James' cells were attacking themselves in their attempt to fight the entrenched foreign matter. The visible aging was a symptom of their losing battle. His body was, for the lack of a better word, degrading.

I had never seen anything like it before on Earth, but I knew what it was. Its properties were identical to what I had read in Hojo's files. This was another one of Jenova's kind... Or was it? Its influence on the Gateway made it clear there was some kind of strange connection at work, strong enough to bring our two worlds together. Was it due to a single being, aware of its incarnations across parallel universes, or a whole species? If only I had been able to learn more about Gaia's Jenova before my return.

All I had been given to work with were James' cells, but the alien matter was too entangled with his own to be properly isolated and studied. I soon requested access to the original material he had injected into himself.

"There isn't any," was James' impassive reply. "It was lost."

"Lost?" I echoed in disbelief. "What do you mean, lost?"

"Earthquake. Destroyed part of the lab, along with the samples."

Only one man had been injected with the cells; therefore, only one man could control the Gateway. The loss of the alien cells had made James invaluable to Orca. How convenient. Too convenient. Not for one second did I believe it had been accidental. And now, James' machinations to save himself were costing him his life. There was a ring of poetic justice to it all, I suppose, but I found no pleasure in it.

Using tidbits of knowledge from Hojo's files and my suit's undiscovered supply of ampoules, I was able to concoct a combination of drugs that slowed down the process. My warnings about infections and insistence on a quarantine likely saved several lives among those who had visited Gaia and been exposed to its foreign microbes. It was enough to prove my worth to James and he, in turn, was valuable to Orca. As long as the status quo was maintained, I was relatively safe.

However, it was only a matter of time before the alien cells gained the upper hand again. A few weeks after James' first injection, his hair turned gray overnight. A week later, I saw him knock a guard into a wall. The following day, he struck another in the face.

"These mercs are a rough bunch," James said when I demanded to know what the hell he was doing. "I just need to make sure they know who's in charge, that's all."

Noticing my apprehension, he gave me a cavalier smile.

"Don't worry about it, Tess. I've got the situation under control."

The next time I saw him, he flung a tray of petri dishes at me in a fit of rage. The objects bounced off my raised, armored arms and clattered to the floor without harm, but the action itself was enough to leave me shaken for days. My only sin had been to inform him that I would need more time to analyze the latest batch of blood samples.

James returned the next day, deep remorse etched on his face. Once, it would have been enough to nudge me toward forgiveness. Now, the rare glimpse of his old self only made the pain cut deeper.

"It... It wasn't me, Tess. I would never hurt you. You know that, don't you?"

The sincerity in his voice wrung my heart until I was sure it was bleeding in my chest. I averted my face and stayed silent. He left without another word.

Watching a man I once loved suffer and slowly lose himself before my eyes; that was what it boiled down to. So many months I had spent wishing I could find a way home, and now that my wish had come true, it turned out to be a living nightmare.

I endured, because I had to. I hadn't forgotten my true objective, and what I saw in the weeks after my arrival only strengthened my resolve. Whatever this alien presence was, it was influencing the Gateway, guiding the portals for its own purposes. The Gateway wouldn't save anyone. It would only lead us to an even worse fate and make us take down other worlds with us, like Gaia.

My eyes were riveted to the screen as rows of letters and numbers began to scroll past, but soon I squeezed them shut, pinching the bridge of my nose with a sigh. Another failed attempt. This mystery would have needed a full medical and scientific team to be unraveled, not just a lone biologist with a few unqualified assistants, a limited laboratory and too little time at her disposal. It was a hopeless venture, but still I had tried to find a way to subdue the alien infection. During the past six weeks, I truly had tried.

Sadly, none of my efforts had any effect. James was running out of time.

He wasn't the only one, either. I had overheard more and more talk about a planned military operation through the Gateway to the "Otherworld", as Orca called it. I couldn't wait any longer. Had this last attempt to help James been successful, it would have been my parting gift for old times' sake.

I glanced around the lab. Only Sonia remained, an elderly nurse who worked as one of my assistants. The facility's severely decimated medical team consisted of her and an Orca medic with practical experience born out of necessity, rather than a proper education. It was no wonder James had been so desperate to bring me back.

Lucky for me, that. If not for James and his need for my work, Orca would have lost patience with me long ago. The mercs had questions about Gaia's resources, technology, defenses. They had not been impressed by my ignorance – some feigned, although most was genuine thanks to my long confinement in Shinra's hospital wing. Only James had kept them off my back.

The interrogations had also made it painfully obvious that not only did Orca have no real clue about the nature of the connection between the two worlds, they also didn't much care as long as the portal worked. Soon after my return I had asked for Anita's opinion on Gaia as a physicist, but she'd had no solid answers either. If that had changed in the past six weeks, I didn't know. She refused to speak to me now.

"Sonia, that's enough for today. I'll finish up here."

The woman gave a curt nod. As she tidied her station, I took a look at the assigned guard, standing near the exit in the corridor flanking the lab. He wore a sour expression and tapped his watch when he noticed my eyes on him. I raised my hand in acknowledgement, then pretended to type on the keyboard while I kept a furtive eye on the other woman.

Sonia finished her cleanup and left. It was time.

Working with a practiced ease that belied my quickening heartbeat, I checked the airtight seal on my helmet, then removed the caps from a set of test tubes. Tucking a stack of folders under one arm before lifting the rack high with my other, I headed out of the lab, aiming for the storage room next to the soldier's post.

"Hey, think you could finish up already?" the guard by the door called as soon as I appeared in the hallway. "Dinner's been on for ten minutes. I'm starving here!"

"I know, sorry!" I said with what I hoped was a convincing apologetic smile, increasing my pace. "I'm almost done."

By the storage room door, I tried to balance the folders on one knee and fumbled for my keys, while the guard sighed with impatience. As I had assumed and hoped, the merc was unaware of lab safety protocol and didn't bring up any of the numerous rules I was breaking.

"Sorry, sorry," I said, making a show of being flustered. "Here, hold this for me, will you?"

Without waiting for a reply, I thrust the rack at his chest hard enough to make the tubes rattle. He grabbed it automatically and I left it in his hands, taking a step toward the storage room door.

"Hey, just what the fuck are you–"

"Thanks, I appreciate it!" I interrupted brightly, taking the keys in my freed hand. "Won't be a second."

The displeased man sniffed, once, twice, then gagged and held the rack at arm's length.

"Jesus, what the hell do you have in these? They stink like... like..."

The guard began to sway and groped for his gun.

"Wha... wha'd... you..."

The storage door clicked open and I ducked inside for cover. Moments later, I heard the man crash to the floor.

I let the door swing open again and for several seconds, I just stared at the heap of listless limbs and shattered glass, amazed that my ploy had worked.

"Warning. User heart rate elevated."

Christ, had that warning gone off too early... Snapping out of my stupor, I sprung back into action. Dragging the unconscious man into the storage room was an easy task with the aid of the powered suit. I considered bringing the gun, but if my plan worked, I wouldn't need it. If the plan failed... Well, then it was all over anyway. I dumped the weapon into a nearby trash can.

I waited several seconds by the exit, holding my breath and pricking up my ears. My eyes scanned the corridor, but saw nothing but gray concrete, cracked by frequent earthquakes and reinforced with steel bars.

I slunk out of the labs and toward the Gateway. The heavy hazard suit made sneaking impossible, but according to plan, nearly all of the inhabitants of this floor of the facility were in the mess having their evening meal. The few who were still at their posts had their eyes set on the outside, not the inside. The coast was clear all the way to the Gateway security station.

As I made my way through the concrete tunnels of the facility, my thoughts strayed to Reno and Reeve, so far away on the other side of the jump. What had been weeks to me, must have been days to them. Were they safe? Were the Weapons vanquished and Meteor destroyed? Did they ever think of me, as I often thought of them? Technically, I had never been alone since my return, yet these had been some of the loneliest days of my life. Orca staff held as little trust and friendship for me as I for them.

As soon as the station was within view, a cold knot formed in my gut. While I had done the work James demanded of me, I had used every available opportunity to gather more information, from overheard gossip to unattended computers. Piece by piece, I had learned of the security measures and the changes made to the facility. Only, the picture hadn't been as complete as I thought.

There were two mercs at the station, not one.

"Shit, shit, shit, shit..."

I mouthed the word like a soundless chant as I surveyed the room from the shadowy cover of some crates stored in the hallway. One of the guards was sitting by the desk near the window, reading a magazine with his feet up on a desk, while the other was pacing by the door, talking.

These guys were the last obstacle between me and the Gateway. Attacking them was out of the question. A scientist against two trained soldiers? Yeah, right. The knockout cocktail wasn't an option either; I wouldn't be able to give it to them individually, and I didn't have enough chemicals to fill a whole room.

I ground my teeth in frustration. I had come too far to give up now, but what could I do? I couldn't go anywhere near the station; the corridor was fully lit and they would know who I was as soon as they laid eyes on the red-and-black suit.

Wait a minute...

An old memory stirred. What was it Reno had once said? People saw the hair, the goggles.

The suit.

My mind raced back over my time at this facility. The first week or two I had been ogled curiously, but I was no longer a novelty. I wore a helmet most of the day and while the visor was transparent, my hair and much of my face was obscured. At meal times I sat by myself or with the research staff, not with the soldiers. I didn't recognize these two, meaning they hadn't been assigned to the labs.

Was I really going to do this? I would be unprotected without my suit, weak and vulnerable. But... It was the only idea that came to mind. My heart rate was picking up as I went through it again, filling in the blanks to turn it a plan of action. I licked my lips nervously. It could work. It should work.

It had to work.

I acted before I could work myself into too much of a state to be able to pull this off. The barracks were close enough to the mess hall that I could hear the hubbub of dozens of soldiers at their evening meal. While unsettling, it had the benefit of drowning out the noise I caused myself.

In my room, I broke into the locker belonging to the larger one of my two mercenary roommates and rummaged through her clothes. Her baggy fatigues were large enough to cover even my armored legs and I paired them with a long-sleeved khaki shirt that concealed my undersuit. The rest of Sparky had to go. A quick glance in the mirror showed a sweaty face, framed by a few strands of wavy hair that had come loose from the sloppy ponytail. Hopefully, my flustered countenance was close enough to that of a disgruntled soldier tasked with physical labor.

I dumped the remaining pieces of my suit into a crate and loaded it onto a pallet jack. It was a lot more effort than I was used to and I was glad I had decided to leave the leg armor on. The exoskeleton was designed to function in separate parts if necessary, meaning my legs got a bit of a strength boost. I had to be careful, though. Without the fine-tuned control of Sparky's main operating system, the response was much cruder.

I observed the functionality as I dashed to medical and stole a jet injector and the strongest sedative I could find. By the time I returned to the suit in its crate, I had a pretty good handle on how to walk normally. I prepared the injector gun with what I guesstimated to be a strong enough dose to take someone down within seconds without killing them, then wrapped it in a rag I had snatched from medical and placed it on top of the crate.

Everything was ready. I grabbed the handle of the pallet jack and swallowed hard, trying to keep my breathing steady in spite of the stale, dusty air tickling my throat. My palms were sweaty and I adjusted my hold on the handle several times. I was going to do this. I had to. Breathe. Focus.

With my fingers wrapped tightly around the handle, I pushed forward.

A/N:

I realize taking the action to earth for a while might be an unpopular move - we come here to read about FF7, after all. However, I think it's important for both Therèse's development and upcoming events, so I hope you will stick with the story. It won't be for long.