Many thanks to my beta, Genesis R, for helping me get this chapter in shape and postable.
"Angeal, I don't like the looks of this place, or what little I can see of it," Zack said, tugging on Angeal's arm. "Let's grab that other elevator and go!"
Shaking Zack off his arm, Angeal felt along the few feet of intervening space between the two elevators until he felt the button panel. He and Zack both sighed in relief as the button dinged and the elevator doors slid open. The only light came from the control panel inside, which let out a welcoming glow.
Zack was darting past Angeal when a gunshot, from somewhere in the darkness, suddenly hit the panel; the warm glow flickered and died, and in the renewed blackness Zack let out a wail spawned by defeat and exhaustion.
Angeal whipped around, but refrained from drawing his sword for fear of slicing off part of Zack. The shot was not repeated, nor did the assailant show himself as Angeal warily regarded the blackness.
"Zack," he said, "I think we're dealing with mad Turks."
"Mad as in...angry?"
"No."
"Oh. You mean wacko. Like Reno."
Reno frowned and crossed his arms obstinately. "I'm not -"
"Reno!" Elena said suddenly from her post at a screen. "Target Three has arrived."
"Good." The sub-villain look returned to Reno's face as he turned to her screen. "Seal the elevator behind him."
The two Turks watched as the tall, confused-looking silhouette was cut off as the doors closed to block the light from the interior of the elevator.
Reno laughed at the angry exclamation audible over the camera's speakers. "Maybe this will teach you SOLDIERs not to do to Turks..." His face fell as he realized that he didn't know what SOLDIERs did to Turks, so he finished lamely, "...whatever it is you do to Turks."
"So, uh, Angeal...what now?"
"There's another elevator a few halls down. Or at least, there is on the SOLDIER floors, and there's no reason for the Turk floor to be laid out any differently."
"Great! Let's go!" Zack took off down the dark hallway, one hand trailing down the wall to orient himself; Angeal had no choice but to follow, unless he wanted to take on the mystery Turk who could obviously see in the dark.
Zack was fairly confident in his ability to navigate the halls; after all, it was laid out almost exactly like the 2nd's floors, and he knew them like the back of his glove.
"Zack!" he heard Angeal call from somewhere far behind him. "Slow down! I-"
Angeal's voice was suddenly cut off and followed by a reverberating crash.
Zack slid to a stop, intending to go back and rescue his mentor from the "mad Turks", when his hand lost contact with the wall and instead hit something else, a something with a strip of long hair hanging down behind it. Zack's hand instinctively closed on it. Reno's hair.
Zack put not quite all of his strength into a downwards jerk, intending to pull Reno over, not divest him of his hair. However, he was surprised when Reno failed to land on the ground; in fact, the person who he now doubted was Reno hardly budged at all.
Zack had no time to contemplate that fact any further as the person spun around, catching Zack in the jaw with a sword pommel. Okay, definitely not Reno.
As Zack went down, he collided with the person's legs, bringing them down on top of him. Zack grunted at the impact, realizing from the smell of shampoo and leather that he'd just pulled Sephiroth's hair. He was going to be so dead. He didn't have much time to think about anything else, for just then he heard Angeal's heavy footfalls coming down the corridor towards them. He felt Sephiroth try futilely to scramble to his feet before Angeal was upon them, but he acted too late.
Zack squeaked as the combined weight of Angeal and the Buster Sword landed on him, also knocking Sephiroth down onto him again. He endured silently for a full five seconds before he started to complain, but Angeal cut him off.
"Sephiroth? What are you doing here?" the First asked incredulously. Sephiroth grunted and shoved at Angeal until the latter got to his feet.
"I was trying to get to the Firsts' floor, but the elevator wouldn't stop," Sephiroth explained, then suddenly froze. "Who's with you?"
"Zack...but I don't see why-"
Zack yelped as Sephiroth's hand suddenly closed around his collar. Could he really see that well in the dark? Nah, probably just a lucky shot, Zack decided, upon hearing Sephiroth addressing the space a little to the left of his head.
"You touched my hair," Sephiroth hissed.
Zack gulped. "I'm really s-sorry, Sephiroth, I mean, sir," he stuttered, before Angeal told Sephiroth to leave Zack alone, or he would remind everyone about the Faberge Egg Incident. Besides, as Angeal pointed out, it wasn't as though any real or permanent damage had occurred. Sephiroth growled and released Zack, who seemed to forget about the episode a few seconds after it happened.
"So Angeal, what tripped you up back there?"
Angeal grunted. "Someone had dropped some overstuffed duffle bags in the hall."
"That's weird. I didn't see any - what's that?"
The two Firsts had also heard the noise - a suppressed cough somewhere down the corridor - and promptly tore off in pursuit of the now-fleeing footsteps. If they could manage to catch a Turk, they could get the elevator fixed and be on their way. The only problem lay in actually catching one.
"Hey! Wait for me!" Zack yelled, running after them. "Don't leave me behind with these crazy Turks!"
Zack managed to draw abreast between Angeal and Sephiroth in their pursuit, but their quarry seemed to have disappeared. Angeal was about to suggest looking in side passages when what felt like like a leg suddenly impeded forward motion. He got a nice mouthful of thick carpet as he landed - and reminded himself to petition for similar things on the SOLDIER floor - before leaping up and chasing after his newest assailant, who was running off down the side corridor.
"Neatly executed, yo!" Reno proclaimed, watching two black-clad legs shoot out simultaneously from mirroring corridors, bringing down the two First Classes and letting Zack run on unmolested. The downed SOLDIERs rebounded, also simultaneously, and each ran off down the side-corridor next to them.
That sequence was perfection, and Reno was glad he was filming all of this.
Reno suddenly jumped up. "You stay here, Laney, and keep those cameras rollin'. I'm gonna go out there and have some fun."
Zack realized too late that he was running alone - he had already taken so many turns chasing the phantom Turk that he was now irreversibly lost in the blackness, and there was no hope of backtracking to find Angeal and Sephiroth.
He slowed down and looked around. He was in a long, straight passage with doors on either side. The Turk seemed to have disappeared, probably through one of said doors.
Zack had passed several, noting the brass numbers on them, before it occurred to him that he could see at all. This, he realized, was caused by a bluish glow periodically flickering out of an open door down the hall.
Intrigued by this strange phenomenon, Zack walked closer to investigate. Five steps short of the door, it suddenly slammed shut.
"Oh, shy, are we?" Zack asked the door. He edged closer, one hand on the hilt of his sword, ready for action. He had no intention to die by the figurative hand of Turk practical jokes; he had always had something a little more...heroic in mind.
He reached out, intending to quietly turn the knob and burst through, sword brandished. But he never got that far; the second his hand touched the door, bluish sparks leapt up his arm. Zack yelled and fell backwards, dropping his sword and clutching his arm. Was this a prank to those crazy Turks?! Now they were trying to killhim!
Zack jumped up, grabbing his sword and eying the door maliciously. Fine, if they were going to try and kill him, he would do the same. But he couldn't let himself try too hard, otherwise he would kill them. And that would be bad for his record.
"Reno, what are you doing?" Cissnei asked, walking up behind him.
"I'm doin' what everyone here is doin', Ciss," Reno whispered, as he stood behind a door onto the main corridor, flashing a bluish light into the corridor outside. "Now keep your voice down. Target One is approaching."
"You know I don't like you doing this to them," Cissnei said, lowering her voice nonetheless. "They don't - is that an EMR?"
Reno looked down at it and grinned. "Maybe."
They both suddenly stopped speaking as heavy footsteps coming down the hall became audible.
"Reno, enough's enough. I won't let you get in a fight with a SOLDIER." Cissnei kicked the door, causing it to slam shut with a metallic bang. Reno dropped the blue light, and Cissnei blinked as her night-vision goggles re-adjusted to the darkness.
Reno waved the EMR evilly. "Don't worry, I don't intend to get in a fight-" Reno stopped suddenly as the "Target" said something from the other side of the door. Reno reached out with the EMR and touched the doorknob.
"RENO!" Cissnei yelled, hearing Zack cry out as Reno electrocuted him.
But Reno was gone. Cissnei spun around, looking for him. Man, that Turk could run fast... Cissnei heard the door bang open behind her, and she turned to see Zack stumbling into the room, blindly swinging his sword around in random arcs.
Cissnei decided that attempted communication at this time would probably be fatal, so she quickly edged around Zack and ran down the corridor she thought Reno might have taken.
Angeal realized too late that the Turk he was chasing was long gone, assuming it had ever existed at all.
He was now completely lost, and the building's layout no longer resembled the SOLDIER floors in the least. The Turks had done a good job concealing the windows, and Angeal didn't even have a slit of light to orient himself by.
He was walking slowly down a frequently-turning corridor, one hand on the wall and the other probing the blackness for obstacles. He encountered a doorframe and went in, for lack of anywhere better to go.
Just as he was beginning to think that being blind wasn't really that bad, his hand touched a slightly raised panel on the wall; a large shape, soft yet unyielding, slammed into his side, sending him flying backwards across the room to collide with, and stick to, the far wall.
He thrashed around for a few seconds as he attempted to unstick himself, before he realized that whatever it was that had hit him had apparently lost interest.
As he hung on the sticky wall and regained his breath, he tried to determine what had hit him and why there had been no follow-up attack. The only conclusion he could reach was a spring-loaded bed. He had no idea why that came to mind, but it seemed to fit the evidence. So the Turks were resorting to bunkroom pranks. Although, he had to admit, the general idea took on a whole new life when done in the dark.
Growling in anger, Angeal twisted around to disengage the magnet holding the sword to his back, and promptly dropped to the floor. At least he himself hadn't been stuck to the wall, or he could have hung there more or less indefinitely.
He stood up and gingerly touched the wall; he could feel that his glove came away with strings of adhesive clinging to it.
He suddenly lunged for the Buster Sword. All that wear and tear and STICKINESS! But the Buster Sword no longer hung on the wall. Angeal cast about the room wildly, but eventually admitted the undeniable - the Turks had stolen the Buster Sword!
Angeal roared in anger and strode off in a random direction, tripping over low bunks and hitting his head on high ones as he gradually accelerated. He would get that sword back, and make the Turks pay, somehow, if it was the last thing he did.
Sephiroth stalked slowly down the passageway, jabbing randomly into the darkness before him with the point of his sword. It irked him that lowly Turks dared to even try this, and he mentally resolved to track down their leader and squeeze that brazenness out of him.
Sephiroth paused when he heard a faint noise behind him. All his muscles tensed, waiting for the downwards swish of a sword blade, just the right moment to spin and deflect, thrust and kill...
Something poked him lightly in the back. The noises rapidly faded away again.
Sephiroth stood there, blinking, sword poised in the air, stunned by such an..."attack".
There was no strategy, no purpose... So why had the assailant even bothered doing it? Sephiroth finally lowered his sword, thinking it over.
Another noise behind him. Sephiroth refused to even act concerned, and instead backed up against the wall, otherwise ignoring the interruption as he continued to muse... Maybe the Turks were attempting scare tactics? A subtle click, and an annoying whirring commenced; he tried to ignore it, too. Yes, that had to be it...they were trying to intimidate him, by ambushing constantly, unnerving him, driving him to the edge of paranoia...well, he, Sephiroth, the Demon of Wutai, would not be taken in by such petty psychological attacks. He attempted a light laugh, and stepped away from the wall.
His body moved away, but his head seemed to be inexplicably stuck to the wall. Sephiroth quickly stepped back again, and felt his head. His hair was somehow attached to the wall; in fact, it seemed to be ... inside it, if that was even possible. A chill went up his spine, less from the lack of the insulation usually provided by his hair than from considering what might have happened to it.
His hair stretched unnaturally away from his back, toward the wall. Sephiroth inclined his head closer to the wall to relieve the tension and attempted to assess what had happened to his hair. He continued his blind exploration until his glove brushed against a metal grating, and a soft labored whirring registered in his ears.
Oh Gaia, no. His beautiful hair was inextricably enmeshed in THE TURKS' WALL FAN!
A/N: As to the oblique reference to the "Faberge Egg Incident": Yes, there is a story behind it. No, it's not published yet. And yes, it will be at some point. (Just not now...) All that's necessary to know right now is that it's a story that Sephiroth would really, really like to keep from getting out.