Second Chance

Kagura Kyo Shinra

Warning: This story has shounen-ai. So if you don't like homosexual males, you shouldn't read it.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything. I take no responsibility for these characters or Final Fantasy or anything except this story.

Part Four: Marie's Excursion

Every light in the old ShinRa lab was turned off, but a stray ray of light from a small flashlight slid across the floor, into the main office and onto the computer that held all the secrets of mako reactors¾a knowledge kept hidden by the ShinRa company to avoid similar mistakes like the ones from their past.

A slender hand reached out and flipped the computer on, pouring light onto the face of Marie.

"Easier than I thought," Marie murmured.

Ring. Ring.

"Idiot," she groaned and grabbed her cell phone. "What do you want? I'm somewhat busy."

"Have you found the information?"

She held the phone in place with her shoulder and began clicking at the computer keyboard.

"Wait. I'm looking right now. Oh my gosh!"

"Did you find it?"

"Bingo," she whispered. "All the information on how to make a mako reactor."

"Open and download it."

Grinning, she fiddled with the mouse and clicked on the link. Her grin quickly faded.

"Enter password? I need a password."

"You don't have it?"

"No. Damn," she cursed. "I bet only Rufus and Tseng have it. Oh shit!"

She stopped talking and listened in the darkness. Growing footsteps echoed throughout the room, and she quickly turned off the computer and her phone.

"Who is that?" Rufus asked as he approached Marie

"It's me," she replied. "I thought I heard somebody in here and came to look around, but I must have been hearing things."

"Nobody's allowed in this lab or the office except for Tseng and myself."

"Oh, I didn't know," she said. "My keycard let me in, so I thought it'd be okay."

"Your keycard shouldn't have allowed you access."

"Perhaps the slide is broken," she suggested.

"Perhaps . . ." Rufus agreed, although he knew she was hiding something.

"Well, I should probably be getting out of here then," she said and headed for the door. "I'll tell the maintenance department to check the lock on this laboratory."

Rufus nodded and watched her leave. As soon as she had closed the door, he looked aback at the computer, curious. The light on the tower was still on. In her haste, Marie had only turned off the monitor. Rufus flicked it back on and stared at the screen.

"Mako reactor . . . What's she thinking?" he asked himself.

He opened a drawer and rummaged through it until he found a blank CD. Without a word, he slid it into the computer, entered his password and copied the information.

He liked having a copy of the secret data because he felt safer that way, like he was in control and could stop anyone from doing it again.

"Whatever Marie's playing at, she's not going to win," he said and deleted the reactor information from the computer's hard-drive.

TBC . . .