Another shortie, but this one was a little rough.

Oh, and uh, KR, you were right, you know…

Chapter 47

Jaras went back into the bathroom to take off his old SOLDIER outfit. He turned on the light and locked the door before looking at himself in the mirror one more time. Although he didn't think he was smiling, the lips upon his reflection twisted up into a sort of sneer.

"You honestly thought it would be that simple?" his image said to him.

Jaras' eyes went wide as he looked back at his visage, which was not necessarily reflecting what he was actually doing. "Oh no…"

"Did it ever occur to you that knowing that being immersed in the Lifestream is what took away your power, that perhaps Dr. Methius saw to it to improve upon the Jenova's ability to survive such exposure?" Sephiroth's cat like eyes narrowed back at him in his satisfaction.

Jaras' mouth fell open as he wanted to say something, but nothing came out. He was mortified at being faced so blatantly with his inner self and his blood ran cold.

Sephiroth's smile immediately fell and his arm came up and forward, emerging from the mirror and his hand clutching Jaras' throat. "You will never be free of me!"

Jaras tried to cry out as his hands came up to try and pry Sephiroth's grip from his neck, but just as quickly as it had come, the vision disappeared, leaving Jaras just staring at his own ashen reflection. He panted to catch his breath and understand what had just happened, falling to his knees.

The Jenova madness was already setting in-- the Mako treatment the day before had done nothing, and he was terrified.

-----------------------

Rude walked through the entrance to the Shinra building and straight back to the security desk before the elevators. There were two men present who both immediately rose up from their seats upon his approach.

"Sir? What can we do for you?" the one on the left asked, well aware of who he was facing. They had yet to receive any word regarding the president's disappearance.

"I've been sent from Midgar with some associates of mine. We are under orders to go up to the lab and claim Dr. Peirte Methius' remaining belongings from this facility. I would like the lab emptied of all personnel so that we may conduct our work in peace. Send up the order," Rude said, pushing his glasses up higher on his nose.

"Y…yes, Sir," the other guard responded, picking up the phone to call up to the lab.

"I'm going to go get my men now." Rude turned away, hiding the smile he felt. He stepped back out of the building and waved over at the ASRIO team. "Come on."

They all hurried up the stairs and followed him back in and over to the elevators. Everyone walked along, seemingly calm and cool, with the exception of Quigley who was sweating profusely.

One of the two guards avoided looking at the group of Turks as they went by, but the other glanced at them, noticing the one man looking profoundly unsettled. Once the Turks stepped onto the elevator and out of view, the guard picked up the phone again.

"What are you doing?" the other man asked.

He shrugged, waiting for an answer. "Better safe than sorry on things like this."

"That was Rude!" The guard pointed back to the elevators. "Of all people to question!"

He pulled the phone from his ear, realizing the stupidity of what he was going to do. There was every chance that if the Turk later found out that he, a measly watchman, had dared to question him, that he would find a bullet in his head. Laughing to himself, he placed the phone back down. "Yeah, you're right. Fuck it."

They rode in the elevator up to the lab level in silence. Rude looked back over his shoulder at the four men with him, considering them for a moment. His eyes landed upon Quigley, who looked like he was just about to crawl out of his skin. "Are you doing all right?"

The ASRIO researcher tried to play it off cool, but failed miserably. "Uh, sure thing."

Porter glanced at his partner and then over at Rude. "You can't blame the guy for being nervous, Rude. He used to work in the Midgar lab with Hojo, remember?"

Rude nodded knowingly. Undoubtedly, the man had seen plenty of things to solidly ensconce a good level of fear within him in regards to Shinra labs. "This shouldn't be too bad."

Quigley was only marginally comforted by this, and began to fidget with his hands.

Feeling the disquiet within his friend, Porter instinctively reached over and patted Quigley on the back. "You'll be okay, Quig."

"Okay," he said back, his voice hushed. He was ashamed for his level of fear in front of the other men who all seemed to have it so well together. The researcher knew that he didn't belong there. It was all wrong.

The elevator finally stopped and the doors opened. They stepped out into the hallway before the lab's security doors. Rude went up to the keypad and swiped his identification card through it, but the doors didn't unlock. "Fuck…"

Ericson, always prepared, tore his gaze away from the cluster of bullet holes that still marred the wall where Vincent had been shot and came over. He passed his counterfeit card through the slot and the light turned green, the doors unlatching.

Rude considered his pass card for a moment, before slipping it back into his pocket. Unbeknownst to him, although no sort of announcement had gone out yet, since he was supposedly missing, a hold had been placed on his pass card in the Shinra computer system back in Midgar, which was, of course, networked to all the company's facilities. That way, if someone had taken his card in an attempt to gain access, it would be fruitless, or moreover, if he showed up himself to use it, an alert would instantly go straight to the security offices back in Midgar.

And that is exactly what happened.

Blissfully unaware of this, they entered the lab, finding it mercifully abandoned as per Rude's request. After scanning the scene and making sure that it was all clear, Rude motioned over toward Dr. Methius' office. "Go get to it."

His body now trembling horribly, Quigley hurried over and entered the small office, Porter going along right at his side. He landed in the plush chair behind the desk and turned on the computer.

Porter pulled a small piece of paper from his pocket and dropped it on the desk. "Hopefully he used the same password."

"Yeah," Quigley said back, eyeing the code that they'd gotten off of the laptop that had been brought to them earlier. Once the computer booted up, the researcher entered the code into the login box and let out a relieved sigh when he was granted access. "We're in."

Back out in the lab proper, Rude was remaining close to the doors, weary for any sign of trouble. Kimo was at his side, his gun in his hands, ready to take aim at anyone that dared step off the elevator at this inopportune moment.

Ericson, in the meanwhile, busied himself collecting various sample vials, memos, and other such things that had been left out, in the off chance that there was something valuable to be learned by doing so.

Back in the office, Quigley was searching for anything having to do with cancer. Now feeling as though he was doing something of value to redeem himself, his nervousness abated a bit and he typed and read at a fever pitch, looking for the needle in the haystack of files.

Porter just stood behind him, hands on the blonde's shoulders, watching in approving amazement at how fast Quigley was sifting through the information being presented. "Come on, Quig…"

Quigley's whole body went rigid and his eyes went wide. "Oh fuck…fuck fuck! Here! Right here! This is it! Oh, give me the disc, Port!"

Porter pulled the blank CD-R from his coat pocket and handed it to his friend. A smile was upon his lips, not just from the information being found, but for the fact that Quigley had sounded like he was on the verge of orgasm for finding it. "Don't have some sort of sexual experience over it, Quig."

This went right over his head as he slipped the disc into the computer and began saving files like a man possessed. The progress bar for the save came up, the blue line creeping painfully slow across the screen.

26….39…57

Quigley looked back at the former Turk. "Is everything still quiet?"

"Yeah."

74…88…93

Then, the alarm went off.

Quigley's eyes went wide in terror. "I thought we were free and clear!"

"Quig, get the disc," Porter snapped, standing up and going to the door of the office. He spotted Rude, Kimo, and Ericson by the doors. "What's up?"

"I'm guessing that my pass card getting denied tipped someone off somewhere," Rude replied, his calm air unflappable.

100

Quigley huffed and pulled the disc from the computer, snapping it back into its case and getting up. He jogged over to Porter. "Okay, it's all here."

Rude nodded curtly. "We're outta here."

Quigley slipped the disc into his pocket, feeling his nervousness return threefold. He pulled out the gun that he'd been provided with when it was clear that everyone else had done the same.

Porter pulled his phone out of his pocket and dialed Reno.

"What?" came the ASRIO leader's voice.

"We've got it, but the alarm just went off. Someone's savvy." Porter followed as Rude led them back toward the elevators. "I don't know if we'll be able to get through the front doors…"

"We'll get in the air and just hang over the building. When you get either to the roof or the ground, call and Brad and I will be there." Reno was sitting in the copilot's seat of the helicopter and looked over at the pilot who was already firing up the engines.

Not bothering with any pleasantries, Porter simply hung up and dropped his phone into his coat pocket.

Rude hit the call button for the elevator. "Okay, the building's seven stories tall, we're on the fifth. We go up, it's the shortest way."

Porter nodded in agreement. "Yeah."

"Call him back once we get on the elevator." Rude turned his back to everyone as he waited for the doors to open up.

The elevator arrived and there was a tense moment as the doors parted. Within was someone, but before the doors had opened fully, Kimo had already pealed off a shot, killing the lone guard within. They stepped over the body and got in. Quigley leaned against the back wall of the lift and looked down at the dead guard on the floor. He noticed that it was the guard at the security desk that had made eye contact with him as they had walked past.

Seeing that his friend was fixating on the dead man, Porter came over and placed his hands on the sides of Quigley's face, forcing him to look up. "Quig?"

His stressed and tired eyes met Porter's. "Huh?"

"We're almost out, okay? Just keep it together for a few more minutes, all right?" Porter was staring to wonder if it was possible for Quigley to drop dead from stress alone.

Quigley offered him a slight nod, but his eyes were already trying to look downward at the dead guard again. "Yeah…"

Porter shook his head. "Don't look at him, Quig."

The researcher simply closed his eyes.

Porter then pulled out his phone, and hit Reno's number.

"What?"

"Roof," Porter said, before stowing his phone away again.

The elevator didn't make it to the roof. It stopped on the seventh floor and everyone held their guns before them. The doors parted and they were faced with four Shinra guards, rifles pointed at them.

Kimo didn't give it a moment's hesitation, nor did Rude before they opened fire. Two of the four guards instantly fell, the two remaining diving for cover. Rude and Kimo kept their guns blazing, motioning back for Porter, Ericson, and Quigley to get out while thusly covered and make the short run to the stairwell that would get them to the roof.

The two Shinra guards attempted to fire back as three of the men ran toward the stairwell, and Ericson was clipped in the left shoulder by a bullet, but didn't allow it to effect his pace. Porter opened the door to the stairwell and let Quigley and Ericson pass.

Seeing that the others were safe, Rude then motioned for Kimo to go as well. The blond bolted, firing as he went, taking out one of the two remaining guards. He managed to pass Porter and get into the stairwell.

Rude then darted toward the stairwell, making it but at the cost of his sunglasses falling from his face as he went. "Start climbing!"

Ericson was already on the roof, having made the ascent in just a few short seconds, getting to the task of getting the door above open, which he quickly did.

Porter hesitated, letting everyone else get on the stairs before he started, knowing that he would be the slowest in light of his old injury.

The chopper was there and waiting, and Ericson sprinted for it, followed closely by Kimo.

Rude got to the top of the stairs and looked back, seeing Quigley close behind him, but Porter was only about half way up. "Come the fuck on!"

Porter was doing his best, but his hip had just never gotten back to anything close to normal after Hojo had shot him all those years ago. He was making it up the stairs at a descent pace, but no where near as fast as the other's had.

Then, the door to the stairwell opened below, the lone surviving guard appearing.

Something came over Quigley and he actually raised the gun he'd been given and he fired a shot, but not before the guard got off one of his own.

The guard was struck, by some trick of fate, in the head by Quigley's wild shot and hit the floor.

But Porter wasn't climbing the stairs anymore. He was standing perfectly still there, a few steps below Quigley and Rude.

Quigley's eyes went wide when he noticed the dark stain beginning to spread across the front of Porter's suit. When the guard had gotten off his lone shot, it had hit Porter in the back, the bullet tearing all the way through him and exiting out the center of his chest. He fell to his knees on the steps, his right hand clutching the front of his shirt.

"No! Oh God, no!" Quigley tried to go back down to Porter, but Rude grabbed his arm.

"He's fucked, let's just go!" Rude attempted to drag the other man out and toward the helicopter, but Quigley wouldn't budge.

Having seen what had befallen the dead that Shinra had gotten a hold of before-- Cloud, Vincent, and his own brother, Spencer-- there was absolutely no way that he was going to abandon Porter, mortally wounded or otherwise. He ripped his arm from the Turk's grip and got down to Porter.

"Port, come on, we're getting out." Quigley stooped down, letting Porter put his arm around his shoulders.

Rude, knowing that Quigley was in no shape to haul the quickly weakening man up alone, cursed under his breath and then went down, getting to Porter's other side and helping get him up the stairs. They got up to the landing and out on the roof.

The others were standing in the door to the chopper, weapons drawn to offer whatever cover they could as the last three members made it toward the machine. However, no one needed to fire a shot as Rude, Quigley, and Porter reached the helicopter before any more guards emerged.

Porter was hoisted into the chopper and laid out on the floor. Quigley got to his side and cradled him in his arms as the machine lifted them from the roof and into the sky.

A silence fell over everyone as they watched Quigley sit there with Porter in his arms. Even Reno, who'd emerged from the cockpit to sit with his men didn't dare say a word, already knowing the inevitable outcome from the location of Porter's wound.

Quigley searched Porter's green eyes. The researcher's cheeks were marked with tears and there was an unbearable tightness in his throat, but he forced himself to speak. "Come on, we're back on the chopper…we made it."

Porter was trying to breathe, but it was nearly impossible. Blood ran from the corners of his mouth when he attempted to reply. "Quig…"

"It's okay…" Quigley's shoulders heaved as he was being wracked with sobs. "We're going home."

Porter closed his eyes for a moment, the pain becoming unbearable. His lungs were filling with blood, smothering him. "Tell Rayna…"

"No! You're not dying!" Quigley shook his head, seeing the color draining from his friend's face.

"Tell Rayna I love her." Porter choked for a moment, before bringing his blood soaked right hand up against the blonde's cheek. "And…I love you, too."

"Porter!" Quigley was in abject panic. "I love you, please, don't die!"

The former Turk's lips quirked into a faint smile for a moment, before his eyes stopped focusing and his head lulled back.

Quigley looked over at Reno. "Help me!"

Reno shook his head slightly, knowing that there was nothing either he or anyone else could do.

In a desperate act, Quigley laid Porter flat on his back and knelt at his side. He began chest compressions.

Reno stared on, tears marking his left cheek. "Quig…stop…"

"No!" Quigley stopped pushing on Porter's chest for a moment, but just to put his mouth to his friend's, in a vain attempt to give him a breath. He began to move to start chest compressions again, but face to face with Porter like he was, and tasting the blood now in his own mouth, the reality hit-- and it hit hard. Quigley collapsed onto the dead man, crying with complete abandon.

Reno fell back into one of the seats on the chopper, Rude, Kimo, and Ericson opposite to him, all eyes on Quigley.

"Reno," came a voice from his left.

Dreading what he was about to see, Reno slowly turned his head to the side. It was Porter, sitting next to him. Silently, he mouthed the words, Oh fuck…

Porter turned his head and looked over at where Quigley was with his body. "Tell him, Reno, tell him I'm okay."

Reno then looked to his right, seeing that Tseng was in the seat on that side of him. Over the sounds of the helicopter's rotors, he knew no one would be able to hear him as he whispered, "Tseng…what the fuck?"

Tseng offered him a weak smile. "I'm here for Porter right now, you need to go be there for Quigley."

Reno nodded and got up, going over and kneeling next to Quigley's side. He placed his hands upon Quigley's back. "It's okay…"

Quigley, upon feeling Reno beside him, straightened up and turned toward his boss. His tear dimmed eyes begged for something, anything, that would make this all just a dream. "Reno…"

Not knowing what else to do, Reno put his arms around the researcher and held him close. He looked up over where he had been sitting, seeing Porter smile at him in gratitude, Tseng getting up and coming over to put his hand on Porter's shoulder. Reno closed his eye for a moment to blink away the tears, but when he looked again, three empty seats were all that he saw.