By Kristen Gupton-Williams

The next morning came and slowly the survivors from the mission emerged from their respective quarters. As they gathered in the cafeteria of the base there was a strange silence that fell over them. It was as though the experiences of the previous day had been so intense that the energy from each of them had been completely sapped.

When Vincent and Tifa arrived, they at once spotted Tseng, Jaras, Angel, Reno, Porter, and Rayna sitting together. Ericson was noticeably absent as he had been sent earlier that morning to go track down Morris’s remaining family and deliver to them the unfortunate news. Having been the now dead agent’s best friend he had readily volunteered for the trip.

They made their way to the table and found their seats. Tseng offered the two of them a polite smile. "Did you rest well?"

"In light of the circumstances, yes." Vincent replied, knowing that his exhaustion was still obvious.

"Good." Tseng leaned back in his seat and motioned toward Jaras. "I believe you had something you wished to say to your father?"

Jaras, as usual, was uncomfortable as all eyes turned to him. He drew in a jagged breath before responding, "I’m going back to Mideel."

Vincent dropped his gaze and sighed, not at all surprised with this news. It had become increasingly clear to him after the mission that something like this was going to happen. "I understand and respect your decision."

"Thank you." Jaras offered up a fleeting smile. "But you are more than welcome to come by anytime you like."

Vincent looked back up and nodded. "We will."

Tifa also seemed to take the news in stride, knowing that this wasn’t the world that Jaras was meant for anymore. "When are you leaving?"

Tseng spoke up. "My airship is departing this afternoon, taking him home."

Tifa knitted her brows and looked at Vincent. If there was an airship leaving she had plans of her own. "Vincent?"

He at once knew exactly what she was up to and smiled back at her. "You want to go see him, don’t you?"

"Yes!" She clasped her hands together against her chest. "Can we? I mean, God only knows how well Cid is doing at this point."

Tseng cocked an eyebrow. "You wish to be dropped off in Rocket on the way I take it?"

"Please, Tseng? Can we?" Tifa almost begged, although she already knew that Tseng was going to allow it.

"Certainly, as long as you feel up to traveling." Tseng was really directing this question toward his brother.

"That is very generous of you." Vincent said to Tseng, glad that Tifa had been made so happy.

Their attention was diverted as Quigley stumbled into the room, his arms laden with papers. He came over and dropped the bundle in front of his boss. "Here’s everything I learned about Hojo’s cloning technology, growth accelerators, and what not."

Tseng looked at the mass of writing tossed before him and sighed. "Is this all you have been doing since you came here?"

"Yeah." Quigley ran a hand through his disheveled hair. "I had no idea that the freak actually taught me so much. Heck, I think if I was given the right equipment I could practically clone and grow someone myself."

Vincent was feeling a little full of himself and interrupted. "Then grow me a real body."

Quigley looked over at him and pursed his lips. "I can’t grow you a body unless I get a sample of normal DNA from you and we all know Hojo tampered with that."

Vincent shrugged in response, not really expecting an answer in the first place. He knew that his genetic code was altered beyond repaired courtesy of the madman. Even without the Chaos demon lurking in his cells there were still many alterations that had taken place and any attempt to grow a viable tissue sample from him was doomed to failure. He flipped his long hair over his shoulder and sighed.

Suddenly, a shocked expression came across Quigley’s face, and he ran around the table stopping behind Vincent. "Oh my God…"

Vincent jerked around as he felt the man’s hands run through his hair. "What are you doing?"

"Mr. Valentine, may I ask you a question?" Quigley was absolutely mesmerized as he let some of Vincent’s long tresses fall though his fingers.

"What?" Vincent was not comfortable with this person he hardly knew touching him.

"When was the last time you had this cut?" Quigley’s eyes were wide.

Vincent, not quite following narrowed his eyes in thought. Truth be told, he couldn’t remember the last time his hair had been trimmed but he did know that it was long before he was originally put into stasis. "It was probably done last before you were born."

With that simple knowledge, Quigley’s excitement came to a boil. "Mr. Valentine… normal human hair is generally replaced on average every four years… but if you are above average…"

Tseng got up quickly from his seat and came to Quigley’s side, catching on to what was being proposed. "Quigley, do you really think it could work?"

"I don’t know, I’ll have to take a sample and analyze it and if we’re lucky, I may be able to find some intact DNA." Quigley let his hands drop to his sides. "I need a sample."

Vincent watched in stunned horror as Tseng reached down and picked up and steak knife from the table. Before he was able to protest, his brother sliced away a considerable number of his locks. "What the Hell?"

Quigley took the hair sample from Tseng and smiled. "Mr. Valentine, if there is some of your original and unaltered DNA in this, I can make you a new body."

Vincent was dumbstruck as he watched Quigley bolt from the room, carrying with him a good fourth of his hair. He looked down at Tifa who herself was in shock. "Did he just say what I think he did?"

She just nodded in response. Without a large understanding of genetics or Hojo’s technology this all seemed very improbable to her, but Quigley had seemed so certain.

Tseng placed his hands on his brother’s shoulders. "Don’t get too excited yet, Tsuvati. This will only work if there is any remaining normal DNA in that hair sample."

Finally managing to get a firm grasp back on his emotions, Vincent narrowed his eyes and sighed. Nothing it seemed ever went smoothly for him and for this to actually work would be nothing short of a miracle. "When will he know?"

"It most likely won’t be until you’re back from your trip," Tseng speculated.

"Okay." Vincent was now taking this in stride.

Tifa on the other hand was touched with the hope of this, no matter how small it may be. She met Vincent’s gaze with a smile brimming on her face. Without any thought to it, she threw her arms around him and felt tears sting her eyes. Tifa knew that a normal body was the one thing that Vincent wanted in this world and even if he wasn’t going to show any enthrallment over this possibility, she was.

Porter, knowing that he was the only one other than Quigley here with any measure of understanding regarding Hojo’s work rose up painfully from his seat. "Tseng, where exactly is Quigley headed with that?"

"Let me show you." Tseng escorted Porter and Rayna out of the room, aware that this former Turk may well be able to help in this experiment.