Disclaimer: I don't own FF7.

Note: The story begins around the time Cloud and Sephy head for Nibelheim in the game.

Chapter One

The brownish bug twitched its antennae, trying to pick up the muffled sounds. Six legs crawled towards the door where a ribbon of daylight seeped into the rotting floor. Strange voices and a musical jangling of metal grew distinct.

"One of these should work." One voice came, assertive, from between the cracks of the old door. Two comprehensive antennae twitched and six legs scuttled away.

"Here, let me."

The escaping roach felt the staccato clip of heels underneath its six feelers before the loud crash of heel and wood. The door suddenly swung open, surprisingly wide, rusted hinges and all, the wide arc catching the bug in the middle of its escape and sweeping it to the wall where door gave a last bang, crushing the vital goo out of our little friend's body.

Hands jammed into pockets, the executioner casually inspected the dark lobby, the musty furniture and the dusty spotlight from the window. "Hey, Rude, you don't think that we actually beat them to the place this time, do you?"

Rude had already made his way to the stair landing. "It appears so." He mumbled.

"Well that's just great." Reno replied, scratching his head in exasperation. "Now we have to wait." He turned around to face his partner but Rude wasn't there. "Hey where are you?"

"Up here." Rude's voice drifted almost inaudibly from the upper hallway. "We might as well look around."

Shrugging, Reno climbed up the stairs, following Rude's footprints visibly printed on the dusty floor. "Might as well set up an ambush." He grinned, trailing the prints until he reached a dead end into a sparsely furnished bedroom. Perplexed, he walked around the odd brick wall were Rude's prints halted. "Hey, Rude, did you get attacked by a monster or some—WOAH".

Reno had walked back to where the footprint was and the wall had suddenly opened, causing him to throw himself back to the old bed in surprise. A very patient Rude stood watching him from the newly opened doorway. "I found a secret passage, but it's too dark for me to go any further."

Reno regained his composure and regarded his friend with a straight face. "You mean too dark with or without those shades?"

"At last!" Reno cried, hopping off the final step. Rude was close behind him, not wanting to stray too far away from the person with superior eyesight. "Spiral staircases then a ladder, this place better have something interesting or I'm cutting a b—"

"This must be where they built the lab." Rude said meditatively. "The lab where they conducted the JENOVA project."

Reno whistled in amazement. "You don't say. Well now that's a reason to look around, come on!" He recklessly charged through the dark hall.

Like a patient man, Rude followed him with steady, clipped strides, blindly feeling his way through. A harmless bat flew past him and landed on a protrusion on the wall. He shooed it away and inspected the alien object with his fingers, it was, undeniably, a doorknob.

There was a sudden crash at the far end of the hall, Reno's voice echoed back to him. "I found the lab!" Ignoring him, Rude took out his set of keys and methodically inserted each one into the doorknob.

Presently, Reno jogged over to him and impishly peered over his shoulder. "Need some help?"

There was no time to reply, Rude had to duck from Reno's sudden roundhouse kick and the third door of the day forcibly swung open.

Rude adjusted his glasses and entered. It was too dark to see anything, he was about to leave when Reno turned on a flashlight that revealed the room to be a catacomb of some sort, furnished with lidless coffins and sprawling skeletons.

"Woah, would you look at this place." Reno whistled. "Creepy."

"Where'd you get that flashlight?"

"Found it in the lab." Reno shrugged, swinging the light around. "Now why do you suppose that one is shut?" He whispered at length. The light had fallen on the only closed coffin, conspicuously placed in the center of the room. "Think something's in there?"

"Nobody alive." Rude replied. "There's nothing here, let's go check out that lab."

"Hold on, let me take a quick peek."

"What for?"

"Well, aren't you the least bit curious?" Reno responded excitedly. "Maybe it's some old Shinra bigwig?"

"Likely not."

"You aren't scared are you?" Reno teased, a rascally grin forming in his lips.

"That is the oldest trick in the book." Rude sighed, walking away. "Do what you want."

Reno forehead crinkled. Fine let him miss all the action. Reno stalked carefully towards the coffin and shone the light on its surface, trying to look for an epitaph. "Nothing." He whispered, the atmosphere called for whispering. "Now how do I get this thing open?" He set the flashlight between his teeth so that the bulb still shone on the coffin lid and, with both hands, pushed the lid with all his might.

"Let me."

"Uh aht?" Reno turned toward the door, flashlight still between his teeth, casting a circle of white light on Rude's form in the entryway. "Oh, ow u omm?"

"It's too dark for me to go anywhere else." Rude replied frankly.

Reno shrugged and stepped aside, providing Rude with light (with his hands this time) as he spasmodically regained the feeling in his jaws. "You don't have to open it all the way. Just enough for me to use my Electro-Mag Rod to prise it open."

Rude acquiesced with a nod, positioned himself perpendicular to the length of the coffin and pushed the heavy lid forward. The loud grinding of the lid and casket reverberated through the room.

"Hold it. That's enough." Reno brandished his baton cheerily and stepped into the fray. "Now I'll just stick this in and—"

...To wake me from the nightmare.

"D-did you say something?" Reno's head whipped around to face Rude. The latter shaking his head.

"Then what was—"

The voluntary sliding of the lid cut him off midsentence. The grinding of the lid and casket was a countdown to something he no longer wanted to see. Speechless and wide-eyed, he turned to Rude for some pragmatic words of wisdom.

"M-must be the wind." Rude stammered, eyes growing larger than his shades could cover.

The grinding stopped.

Who is it!?

Reno and Rude let out a strangled yelpand frantically raced towards the door, Reno with his flashlight in the lead, but before they could reach the opening, the door swung shut with a loud bang.

"M-must be the wind."

"From inside?!" Reno replied, half mad, and applied one foot on the plane of the door for support as he pulled desperately at the doorknob. "It won't open! Quick, hand me one of your—"

A distinct frush of movement from behind sent chills up their spines. Slowly they turned their heads around to see a shape of a man slowly rise from the casket. Reno's hand involuntarily aimed the light at the figure, revealing an icy white face and blood-red eyes.

"...Never seen you before. You must leave." The strange man said, completely devoid of emotion.

"W-we were just about to!" Reno replied, aiming the light on himself out of some subconscious politeness.

The strange man watched the pair work nervously on the doorknob, catching snatches of blue suit and discreet rivulets on the immaculate material, telltale signs of a concealed weapon.

"Why don't you kick it down again?"

"Because I don't want to make sudden movements." Reno hissed, struggling with the pick and the flashlight.

"You are Turks." The strange man inputted matter-of-factly.

Reno turned around, his interest on the doorknob put on hold for the moment. "Yeah, that's right. How do you know about the Turks?"

"I... it doesn't matter, it's been too long." The strange man replied. "I have nothing to say to strangers. Get out. This mansion is the beginning of your nightmare."

"You can say that again." Reno scoffed, regaining his wits. "Come on, Rude. Let's get out of here before Cloud or Sephiroth shows up without a set table."

The strange man's brow visibly twitched. "Sephiroth!? You know Sepiroth?"

"You know Sepiroth?" Reno asked at the same time. He stepped forward, a vision of brutish confidence. "How do you know Sephiroth? Just who are you anyway?"

The strange man stood up and made a gigantic back-flip, landing gracefully on the top edge of the casket. "You start first."

Reno scratched his head in deep thought. "Should we, Rude?" He whispered conspiratorially.

"It seems to be the only way to get our answers. I want to find out what he knows too."

"He or it." Reno answered, studying the red eyes and pale skin a speculatively. "Alright, then. It all started when..."

"...so that's how we ended up here." Reno finished, getting comfortable on one of the open caskets. He watched the strange man, waiting for him to reply. "Hey, man, you alright?"

The strange man's eyes were closed, as if he were meditating or sleep-roosting.

"Think he's asleep again?" Reno whispered to Rude.

Rude's reply was cut off by the stranger. "Hearing your stories, has added upon me yet another sin." He climbed off the ledge and back into the casket. "More nightmares shall come to me now, more than I previously had." He picked up the lid and pulled it over the casket with ease.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Reno rushed towards him, unafraid now that icebreakers were in order. "You have to tell us your side of the story!"

"I cannot speak." The strange man replied, replacing the lid. "Now...please leave."

Reno boldly kept it from shutting completely. "At least, tell us what—I mean, who you are."

"I was with... the Shinra Manufacturing Department of Administrative Research."

"Whoa slow down there!" Reno cried in disbelief. "You where-a-TURK?"

"My name, my name is Vincent Valentine." He continued. "Tell me, since you're with Shinra, do you know Lucrecia?"

"Oh now you want to be friendly." Reno rolled his eyes. "I'm sorry, no, who's Lucrecia? And what's with you being a Turk?"

"Lucrecia was the woman who gave birth to Sephiroth." Rude answered from behind. "As for Vincent Valentine, that was the name of the Turk who accompanied the scientists 30 years ago during the JENOVA project. It was assumed he was killed in Mt. Nibel, his body was never found." Reno gave him a strange look. "It's all in here." Rude fished out a sheaf of files from his inner pocket. "Discussed in our briefing"

"Oh." Reno said. "Wait, 30 years ago? What were you an embryo?" He whipped his head back to Vincent and realized the lid was fully closed. "Hey! That's not fair!" He cried and attempted to open the coffin again, without much progress.

"Forget about it, Reno." Rude said, gesturing the newly opened door with a triumphant straight face. "Let's go."

"Yeah, whatever." Reno leisurely patted the lid. "Good night, fella."

The pair made their way back to the dusty lobby. Rude went about planting gas bombs in strategic nooks and crannies. "This should excite the dormant monsters enough to give Cloud a warm welcome."

"What's gonna keep them from attacking us too?" Reno inquired, cocking an eyebrow.

"Um, nothing."

"Great."

"We should go now. It's almost sundown, the monsters will do the work for us."

Reno shrugged, sidling towards the door. ""Whatever you say, ma—AAH." He staggered back at the sudden drop of Vincent from the ceiling, blocking the entrance mere inches away from Reno.

"Do you know Hojo?" He demanded.

"Why don't you make up your mind already? Do you want to be a creepy sleeping zombie or not?"

"We know Hojo." Rude replied civilly. "He still works for the Shinra Science Department."

"All right." Vincent inclined his head with an assertive air. "I've decided to go with you."

"You whaaaat?" Reno spluttered.

"Being a former Turk, I may be of help to you."

"Yeah but—"

"Let us leave this place." Vincent interrupted, serenely exiting the building. Rude followed without a word.

"Rude! Hey, Rude! You're okay with this?" Reno cried following them out. "Hey, hey wait for me!"

The door slammed shut and a brown scuttling insect fell off the wall. Relieved to have escaped its temporary prison, it crawled away like a martyr, enduring the disgusting gash on its side.