Guilt’s Cost: Part XCIX

Exam

Jaras was still trembling as he attempted to catch his breath. His eyes locked with Tifa’s as he scanned the room. If there was anyone who could bring him back to the present, it would be her.

Tifa felt scared as she looked at Jaras, although she knew not why. Whatever was bothering him was serious. His face was ashen, and his eyes were wide with some unnamed terror. "Jaras, are you okay?"

He walked up to Tifa’s bedside just to Tseng’s left. He tried to smile to cover his anxiety, but it didn’t come off well. "Yeah, I think I am."

"What happened?" She asked, reaching out and taking up one of his hands.

Jaras stared down to where his hand met hers. Tifa’s touch was electrifying to his every sense, and the fear within him started to wane. "I… I remembered…"

Tifa at once knew what he meant and got to her knees in the bed. She leaned forward and placed her arms around him, wanting him to not somehow forget who he was now. "Jaras, it’s okay."

He closed his eyes and returned her embrace. For the moment, he grew completely unaware that Tseng and Reno were standing so close by. Jaras nuzzled down into the nape of her neck. "I saw Hojo… He was experimenting on me and I was a boy…"

"It’s okay, Jaras." She continued trying to soothe him, still feeling him shake within her arms. "It’s just a memory."

"But it’s one of his…" His voice wavered. "I was Sephiroth… not Jaras."

She broke off the embrace and placed a hand on either side of his face, locking him into her stare. "Even if you remembered everything it wouldn’t change who you are now, Jaras. You aren’t Sephiroth anymore. He’s part of your past, not your present."

Being this close to her was starting to drive him mad. He gently pulled away from her, fearing that if he remained in their current position very long that he wouldn’t be able to stop himself from kissing her again. "It just scared me, that’s all."

"But you’re okay, right?" Tifa said, settling back down upon her bed.

"Yeah." He at once grew a little self-conscious about his emotional display in front of the other two men present. He glanced briefly over at Reno and then Tseng, hoping that they wouldn’t think any less of him for it.

Reno bit his lip from making anymore inappropriate comments. He had already surpassed his quota for the day and wasn’t about to press his luck. Especially now that Jaras was regaining some sense of who he was.

Tseng on the other hand was filled with nothing but pity for the man next to him. When the others had all been gone on the trip to Midgar to spring Cloud, he had spent considerable time with Jaras at his hospital bedside. He had come to know Jaras for who he now was, and in doing so he had learned what a truly sensitive person he had become. Tseng reached up and put a hand on Jaras’s shoulder, wanting to let him know he cared. "Was it only the one memory?"

"So far… but I’m afraid that others will follow." Jaras said, giving his uncle a brief smile. There was still a feeling within him that he couldn’t suppress, and he asked something without thinking about it. "If you send people back to Midgar to stop Hojo, I wish to go."

Tseng was shocked that he had brought them back to the conversation they were having before Jaras had arrived in the room. "There will be a mission, but we are in no way prepared to plan it as of yet. We need the help of the Turk before we can do that. He has knowledge we will need to pull it off. If you truly wish to go when the time comes, I will not stop you, but please be certain that it is what you wish to do."

Jaras looked back down at Tifa, seeing her pained and tired face. He answered without ever looking back up at Tseng. "I have to go. Stopping Hojo is the only thing that will ever really free me of my past."

Dr. Arlin emerged from behind the curtain obscuring her two patients from view. She walked over to where the three men and Tifa were waiting. She pulled off her exam gloves and pushed her glasses up higher on her nose. "Well, thanks to Angel, it looks like the Turk will be fine. He’s going to need surgery to repair his hip joint and for that I’m going to have to call in a specialist, but he’ll live."

"What about Vincent?" Tifa clasped her hands together, fearing any bad news.

The doctor looked thoughtful for a moment. "As Angel had speculated, I believe he is suffering from Post Traumatic Stress. But the state of his physical body is beyond me. I heard how he became unable to move after leaving the Shin Ra building, but I can’t do anything about it. His body is more electronics than anything else, and that just isn’t my area of expertise."

Tears immediately marked Tifa’s cheeks as the doctor admitted her inability to help his body regain mobility. "But will he ever come back and be normal… mentally?"

Dr. Arlin dropped her gaze to the side. "It’s up to him and how well he learns to deal with what he’s been through. Some people come around and go on living normal lives. It’s really hard to say. Most cases of this are different from one to the next, and this early on it’s hard to give any prognosis good or otherwise."

"Poor Vincent…." Tifa covered her face with her hands. She couldn’t bear the thought of Vincent living out the rest of his life paralyzed and unresponsive. Tifa feared that he was going to be caught amid the same hellish dreams that had plagued his stasis sleep, unaware that his mind was void completely; beyond dreaming.

Reno, Jaras, and Tseng were silent, each unable to come up with something to say to help comfort Tifa. They all had their doubts about Vincent ever being normal again. After a few minutes, Tseng did think of at least one thing. "Maybe I can get a electronics specialist down here to take a look at Vincent when he comes around. There might be something they could do to repair his body…"

Dr. Arlin looked up at Tseng. "You haven’t seen your brother since he came back, have you?"

"No." Tseng said simply.

The doctor turned around and started back to where she had Vincent laying. "Come with me, Tseng. You need to see him."

Tseng followed her, not knowing at all what to expect. He slipped behind the curtain with her and saw Vincent lying in a hospital bed. His body was covered with a sheet, only his face visible. Vincent’s crimson eyes were again open, and he was staring at nothing. This alone was unnerving to Tseng, but when the doctor pulled the sheet off his brother, Tseng felt his knees get weak.

He grabbed the arm rail to Vincent’s bed, needing to support himself as he continued to gaze down upon his brother. Tseng had seen Vincent in his entirety before the last mission and thought that Hojo had done all that he could in the name of cruelty to him, but now he knew better. Vincent was hardly human at all; his black metal limbs and lower body shining slightly in the hospital light.

Tseng drew his hands up to his mouth and suppressed his cry of disgust. "Oh God, he cut off his other arm!"

The doctor nodded. "And he’s solid mechanics from the waist down. Before he was at least a little human you know…"

Tseng’s eyes traveled across his brother’s body, coming to appreciate Vincent’s complete emasculation. It at once brought to his mind the thought that Chaos would at least never be able to rape Tifa again. But the thought of the demon was a double-edged sword. If Vincent wasn’t in control of his mind, then how come Chaos wasn’t using this opportunity to use Vincent’s body? "Where’s Chaos?"

The doctor looked up at Tseng. "What?"

"Janice, where’s Chaos?" He motioned at his brother’s lifeless body. "The demon would never let a chance to control Vincent slip past like this."

The doctor looked down at her patient for a moment, realizing that the skin on Vincent’s chest was no longer that of the demon. "I don’t see any evidence of it either."

Tifa, despite the protests of Reno and Jaras had gotten up from her bed and made her way to where the doctor was hiding Vincent. She heard the last of their conversation and threw back the curtain revealing herself. "Because Chaos is dead."

"What do you mean? How?" Tseng spun to face her.

Tifa walked up to Vincent’s side and took up one of his cybernetic hands. "Hojo tried to get Chaos to take over Vincent in the lab, but Vincent was able to fight the demon off. Once that happened, Hojo screamed something about his experiment being a failure and he injected Vincent with something that caused Chaos to… die."

Tseng and the doctor exchanged amazed glances at one another. At the very least, the wretched demon was no longer going to risk harming Tifa. If Vincent was able to snap out of the spell he was in, his life would be greatly improved for having lost the monster within.

Dr. Arlin finally shook herself from her reverie and she moved her gaze between Reno, Jaras, and Tseng. "I hate to ask this, but I will need the three of you to leave. I need to examine Tifa now and I know that she would appreciate some privacy."

Reluctantly all three men agreed, each taking their turn at embracing Tifa briefly before leaving. They each had their own reasons to hate leaving her, but knew that the doctor’s order could not be disobeyed.