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Chapter 3
Within the Walls of Isolation
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There was something decidedly off about this section of hallway. Vincent wasn't entirely sure where to place it, the yawning hallways holding their little darkened rooms continued to lead him further into the belly of a labyrinthine pit. While they were white and clean, the walls left him with a distinct impression of suffering, not too different from that of a hospital or even an asylum.
He cut through a doorway into what appeared to be a small laboratory. The large mako filled chamber in the center brought a flicker of a memory. The similarities between it and the one he had spent time in were too similar not to notice, and left him with an awful sense of foreboding.
Hojo had been here.
Like lightning one of the lights flickered, casting bleak shadows across the room. While the light struggled to stay on, something moved passed the doorway. Yuffie had been right to be uneasy. Anyone else, he knew, would have flinched, however the instincts that Shinra had worked so hard to program him with all those years ago told him to move towards the shadow that had crossed in front of the door rather than away.
Unwilling to register the unease building within him, he focused on listening. The silence gave way to a small intake of breath as if someone were doing the same.
Sharply turning the corner Vincent leveled his gun at a fleeing figure. Sensing him the figure froze in that way he'd heard Yuffie claim was all death, so still that it was almost possible to forget he was a living being. Sometimes he could almost fool himself.
The woman turned her head a thick wave of ebony bangs caped over her eyes, but he knew by the turn of her head she was just as unsure of him as he was of her and that question only added more to the tension. Fear was a powerful opponent. Most animals could become beasts when they felt threatened and lashed out at anything they felt was a threat. Judgment was always hindered.
Finally she turned to him, tiling her chin up so that the thick bangs dropped away. Anyone less would have gasped, but Vincent kept silent, readjusting his grip on his weapon and stared at the woman who intently watched him with black eyes. They were smudges on her face, so clearly black that they seemed like something Marlene would have done when she'd run out of brown crayons.
"Who are you?" He demanded, finally finding his voice.
The reaction he received was only a piece of what he expected. Lists of emotions flickered across her finely angled but clearly Wutaian features. Surprise, anger and then she settled on amusement. A quick slip of a lip corner and one elegantly slender eyebrow lifted. "You would come here," Her voice milky even while stressing each word, "And ask my name?"
The weapon he held between them was practically forgotten as she crossed her arms. Everything about the woman from the neatly pinned hair at the nape of her neck to the long slits up the sides of her skirt giving a very clear view of the pale of her thighs just above her stockings screamed frailty, even her small size, but he had long ago learned not to trust appearances. Tifa and Yuffie had been the ones to teach him that.
Tiredly she drummed her fingers atop the leather covering her arms. "One does not walk into a wyvern's cave and demand the wyvern to show itself."
An odd statement.
"You're not a wyvern." If Barret would have been there he would have roared with laughter.
"No," She said smiling, though it didn't reach her eyes, the dark ripples were like stones. "I don't suppose I am."
Although he was out of practice he knew she was studying him, trying to decide what danger he presented, which was practically laughable. The idea of danger and Vincent were entirely the same, so he let himself give her the benefit of the doubt and lowered the gun to his side. Some of the tension about her bare shoulders eased though she still seemed like a bird on a wire poised to flee.
"Well then tell me yours and I shall give you mine." She said, and when he didn't reply quickly enough her lips pursed and she leaned forward conspiratorially. "Have you forgotten already?" A small incline of her head and the bangs fell to hide those dark eyes where light didn't appear to reflect. It simply disappeared. "Surely you haven't been here long enough to become one of the nameless." There was a touch of amusement in her voice.
"Vincent."
"And there it is." The woman straitened lifting one hand idly to rub along her neck. There was the sound of something clinking, strangely metallic in her movements.
Her eyes snapped to him and it surprised even him that he shifted uneasily underneath the heavy black gaze. "I told you mine." Frankly he couldn't care less for a name, but Reeve would have his head for not asking for a name, or at least claim he would have his head as they both knew his success was highly unlikely.
"If you must." Her boots were barely audible on the floor as she stepped towards him like a predator. "You may call me Wren."
The oddity and risk of meeting her here still wasn't lost on him.
Wren slinked away, unnaturally silent as she moved, pausing only to glance back at him, and then skulked around the corner. Something didn't sit well with him. The woman, the long hallways below Midgar, the materia, and the experiments that had been allowed on Deepground and most likely in this place as well.
The hall was empty when he followed. Something was very wrong with the situation. The bleary lit extensions were silent. Sending a glance each way there was no slender figure. She couldn't have made it to the end of either hallway without running, but then he would have heard those silly heeled boots on the floor. He had never known anyone to fully muffle the sound shoes like that made which left only one option. She had gone inside a room. There down the left hallway just over halfway was an open door. His own boots clanked like chains on the floor as he covered the distance.
The room was empty.
He took a step in and holstered his weapon. Although smaller it was of similar design to the laboratory with the materia. There was a counter in the center that ran the length of the room littered with beakers and test tubes of which several were lying in shards. Along the outer ring of the room were several computer terminals some of which appeared operational, their blue tinted screens pale in the overly whitened room.
He chose the terminal at the end, leaned over the swivel chair and set about searching for any information that might lead to an exit. At first glance it didn't seem to hold any information unrelated to the experiments, but a file name caught his attention.
"It's not wise to mess with things you know nothing of." The sight of Wren sitting primly with her legs crossed atop one of the computer terminals made him cautious. That was twice he hadn't heard her. She glanced up at him idly over her nails, a much more fascinating sight than him.
He turned back to the panel, squinting to read the schematics that were now scrolling quickly down the screen. "You know what this is?"
A short mirthless laugh almost like a hiccup escaped her. "Of course not."
Another image rolled across the screen, slower this time, but the words still flashed by too quickly for him to make out. Not really the best at computers, he began typing in commands on the keyboard, the image changing entirely, however the words finally paused on the screen, and the image then moved to the background. It was a vehicle of sorts.
"Mako compression?" He heard himself say aloud.
"Why are you here?" Wren's voice was suddenly sharp as knives.
"I was looking for a way out."
Wren jerked upright blinking several times in quick succession then her lips parted and she erupted with laughter. It was not a happy sound.
"Why are you here?" All trace of laughter had bled from her voice. "Shinra's secrets perhaps?" Her voice faltered slightly. "Their power you're after?"
Sensing his opportunity Vincent turned to face her. Dark gaze leveled he stalked the distance separating them. Rarely did he allow himself to be thankful for his alterations, but there were times when even he had to admit that his intimidating appearance had been quite helpful. "What are you doing here?" a bit of suspicion evident in his voice.
The woman's face remained blank. "I was sent here." Hastily she added. "Same as you."
Surprisingly she didn't balk, turned her head away but stared back at him from the corners of her eyes. The two remained silent, willing the other to speak. When neither did she squared her shoulders and snapped herself off the computer terminal, heels clapping out on the floor as she strode purposefully towards him. Inches away the woman set her dark gaze on him. Their frozen intensity were miraculously empty black like a channel that held hellish voices speaking dark prophecies that called children to doom.
Her voice was still and contained despite the tension in her shoulders. "Why were you sent here?"
"Why were you sent here?" He countered, unwilling to let her have the upper hand.
She turned her face away and didn't say anything. Intentionally slow Wren stepped away, fingers tracing out patterns along the tops of the terminals.
"You were already here, weren't you?" It wasn't really a question. He had already had the answer when he saw her. "You closed the doors." The dark rumbling of his voice left little room for disagreement, though he was certain when she had turned her head slightly to hear that a ghost of a smile had played along her lips.
"Doors open and close." She cuts those prophetic eyes toward him, made darker if possible by the shadows from her hair. "That's what they do." Then she moved for the door. The conversation was finished. Even if he were to stop her, he knew there was nothing she would willingly tell him.
Vincent turned back to the computer he had been operating and the bluish light of its screen. The radio strapped to his hip began to chatter with static, the room suddenly filled with the tiny machine's struggle and the sound of Wren's slowing footsteps.
"Vincent." The box called, all Yuffie and cluttered by the fuzz and crackle of the static like someone trying to speak through a thunderstorm.
A sidelong glance at the door where Wren stood back to him framed by the light from the hallway, shoulders tensed as though she expected him to leap the distance separating them confirmed her curiosity.
The radio sputtered. "Vin-cent."
Something about the woman shifted, it was as if she was gathering herself for something, preparing for something he couldn't see or wasn't privy to.
"Yuffie." He answered keeping his eyes locked on the woman in the doorway. She didn't dare move, and he found himself mimicking the frozen rigidity in his own shoulders.
"Som-" The voice tiny and desperate was caught within the thunderstorm of static. "ans- me!"
"Did you find something?"
The little box tittered with fuzz for a moment, then nothing, just the silence and the hum of the computer behind him. He waited, clutching the little box ready to answer.
Something within the woman shifted again and he could sense the anger within her from across the room.
"Yuffie?" He waited already knowing that she wouldn't answer. Tiredly he rubbed his neck. Reeve would not be happy if something happened to the young ninja.
"I don't think she heard you." Wren called, finally breaking her silence, although not breaking her line of sight back into the hallway.
For a minute Vincent wished he was better with people and had at least Cid or Barret's knack for sarcasm, so instead he simply nodded, despite her back being turned towards him.
He was just hooking the radio back to his hip when a faint thump from somewhere within the belly of the maze around them rang out all metallic and battle worn. Then it sounded again much lighter before it was swallowed and washed deep into the blearing white halls. Wren turned to him expectantly with her dark eyes wide and waiting, almost knowing, and he reacted.
Practically skidding around the corner into the hallway he was able to cover the first corridor quickly. It wasn't that he knew where he was going, he was simply reacting to the knowledge that the sound had been in one direction, and not even long or loud enough for him to get a clear origin.
Stop. Something told him as he rounded another corner. He broke from a run to a complete stop in two strides, weighing the hall with his eyes. It was exactly the same as the others. Overly white and long.
Then he saw it. Lying at the end of the hall against the wall was Yuffie's weapon. The Conformer was nearly the same color as the floor, slick silver. "So that evil sees their death coming." She had laughed and slapped Cloud across the shoulder when he asked about the thing. The blond had nearly dropped his drink, gold liquid sloshing onto the counter.
Quickly covering the distance he knelt studying the bladed edges. They were still shiny silver, entirely clean and he wasn't certain how much that unnerved him. No blood meant two things. Yuffie wasn't in serious condition, yet, but then neither was her opponent whoever that might have been. And for her not to have injured her opponent could only mean that she had been caught off guard, because as much as the others or Reeve wouldn't have wanted to admit it, Yuffie was more than a capable fighter albeit a bit rash and headstrong but he hadn't been entirely uncomfortable with letting her watch his back in the past. Her earlier attack on the materia case came to mind. Definitively brash, but not an easy target. Had she been outnumbered? Other than that woman there hadn't been any signs of anyone else? The idea of something sneaking up on her wasn't pleasant either. Ninjas and stealth were like him and darkness, one and the same. Ninjas were keenly aware of their surroundings, entirely difficult to surprise one. But then that woman hadn't made the softest of sounds when she entered the room behind him.
Yuffie had known something was off about this place just as he had, and yet he had made them all separate. The familiar taste of guilt was tracing its bitter path up the back of his throat. If only he would have let them stay as a group.
When he scooped up the Conformer it was strangely warm against his skin as if it had been left in the sun. Absently he rotated the weapon in his hand glancing about the hallway half expecting to see that woman making her way along the wall with those eyes fixated on him, but there was nothing.
Ahead the hall broke into a cross section, behind him, the way he had come. He hadn't noticed anyone when he had come running, surely he would have felt them, but he hadn't felt that woman's approach.
Vincent tucked one of the bladed ends to the Conformer under his belt then made his way to the intersection, stopping in its center and turning to survey each hall, long silver reflections of each other leading to another cross section, except the one to his left. Along its length appeared to be a section of darkness. As he neared it was obvious it was another hallway, not really a surprise given the circumstances, but the hall itself seemed to be belching forth darkness. It appeared to be seeping into the main hall and no matter how hard the lights with their fingers of gold tried they couldn't pry the darkness back into the hallway. It had to be a trick of the light playing with his eyes as darkness didn't seep. It wasn't alive no matter how often some of his comrades had made mention of it.
There was blood on the floor. As he neared the intersection he could see the remnants of the dark liquid now crisp and flaking away like the old painted walls in the Shinra Manor. It was like the seeping darkness was hovering, mourning the loss of a child, trying to summon it back to the same realm, or like an old pumpkin cut and painted as a warning to those who would dare enter. The dried blood stretched into the darkened hallway as if something had been dragged through it when it was still fresh.
It only took a moment for his eyes to adjust when he stepped into the hallway, the darkness thick and pressing like one of the great fogs that rolled in from the sea near Junon. The darkness didn't hinder him as he moved down the hall, watching the trail of dried blood thin until it faded entirely. It wasn't much longer until the hallway emptied into another large room.
Sprawled in the very center of the room was Yuffie, limbs splayed about her. She looked dead. Her skin was much paler than usual leaving her far too similar to the floor. There was blood smeared along her legs that didn't appear to come from any wound. Just at the corner of her brow along the bridge of her nose was an angry red whelp beginning to form. The only sign to her life was the slight rise and fall of her chest.
He hesitated. It wasn't in his nature to hesitate nor was it really to fly in gun blazing, but something was off about the situation. Why would something attack and move Yuffie only to leave her in the center of a room?
It appeared empty, so he hurried in kneeling beside her to use his good hand to press into the crook of her elbow. He tugged gently on her arm and when she didn't stir as if merely asleep he dreaded the notion that he might be forced to carry her. It would slow his exit and make defense that much more difficult the heavier and one armed he would be. So he tugged again, jostling her so that she let out a deep breath and began to shift. Her lashes fluttered open, eyes lolling about as she tried to focus. Then she locked on Vincent. Yuffie promptly kicked him in the chin, and flipped herself away in one drunken motion.
The pain registered immediately square and solid across his chin while his head jolted backwards. He had to hand it to her. She had caught him off guard.
"Alright you s-" She growled wobbling on her feet but already gathering herself for another preemptive attack. "Vincent?"
"Yes." Simple. Efficient.
"Vincent!" Yuffie flushed and he could tell by the way she started forward and pulled back that she was torn between throwing her arms around him and hanging herself right there by her shoelaces. Something he had heard her threaten on occasions.
"I'm so sorry!" She sputtered actually managing to look sheepish. "I didn't mean-" Her hands were waving about. "I thought you were…"
"A monster." He supplied. The suggestion was just another tug on a fraying string that surprisingly loosened very little at the thought.
"No." When she reached for his chin he pulled away leaving her to purse her lips and clasp her hands behind her back. Disappointedly she laughed. "Not even a scratch. Gawds you're like stone."
"You're not."
Her reaction was instantaneous. As though a hot poker was placed against her she reeled in on herself eyes scrunching, gasping as she swung a hand up to press against the deepening red mark where her brow met her nose. It was beginning to show the smallest inclination of swelling. Then as quickly as a summer storm she froze using her free hand to point to his hip. "That's mine."
Vincent tapped the Conformer with one of the gold claw fingers so that it let out a soft ping. "It was down the hall."
Then he knew she wasn't really aware of where she was. Yuffie's eyes grew large and frozen barely shifting to see around him. "Vincent." She said her voice quavering. "Tell me you brought me here."
"I brought you here." He had never been very good with sarcasm.
All the air in her lungs rushed out with the color in her face. "Liar." She said, but there was no real bite to her words.
If he gave himself a minute to think he was certain that he wouldn't have had an answer. He wanted to ask her about the situation, but something kept him from immediately hassling her, she would speak on her own, she always spoke. He waited statuesque in the dimly lit room while taking in the complete similarities to the chambers he had seen Hojo and Lucrecia use.
It wasn't until she sighed loudly that he bid the morbid thoughts back into the shadows. "I tried to get you on the radio." She was staring at the large chambers also, gingerly pressing her fingers to the swelling along her forehead. "Someone was following me."
When he nodded to urge her to keep talking she glanced at him. "I know this'll sound crazy, but…it was a monster." Her hands were on him in an instant, tugging at the loose ends of his sleeves. "You have to believe me! It was a monster with glowing red eyes!"
"Like mine." He supplied shrugging her arms away.
She pulled away stung, hands still in the air where he had been, finally deciding on a use for them and shook them wildly in disagreement. "Yeah, but this was a real monster." Turning she stepped away towards one of the tables, picking idly through the contents across it. "It was like it was stalking me."
"Stalking?"
"I could hear it. I never really saw it until…until, well ya know." Vincent nodded again when he realized she was watching him. "But even then all I really saw were those eyes, and ya know I think it was enjoying itself."
It was a game.
Unaided she continued. "It was like it was having fun with fear." Hastily straitening herself to her meager full height she added, "Not that I was afraid or anything." Then pounded the table with her fist.
"Of course not." Barely registering the young woman's uneasy chatter Vincent was staring at a computer desk in which the demons within him placed an image. The dark haired woman was typing quickly as she hunched over the computer, sensing an onlooker she straitened turning in his direction. The ghostly woman he knew all too well smiled. Had Lucrecia known about this place?
Then the shadows pulled forth another image from the first, taking and twisting the woman's features so that her hands became spindly and her eyes sunken. Hojo stared back through a small twinset. The man challenged him with his eyes; dared Vincent to step forward and when he didn't the scientist began to laugh. Though he knew it was only his mind reacting to the room around him he found that he could almost hear the shrill rise and fall of the scientist's laughter.
"Talk about the heebie jeebies." Yuffie muttered somewhere across the room.
Despite himself Vincent agreed, momentarily surprised that she wasn't at all seeing the same images from his past. She was tracing her fingers along the wall where long thin streaks too clean to be claws crossed the door.
"Let's not meet what made those." Uneasily she smiled over her shoulder at him, not at all hiding the tremor in her voice.
Vincent sighed. "I believe you already have."
Her face paled as she unconsciously rubbed the darkening mark along her brow. "Then we are SO not going that way."
Each wall held a door. The one behind him they had entered through, and the one across from him Yuffie had deemed unacceptable. He chose the one to his right, Yuffie following his lead and heading towards the other.
It didn't automatically open, so when he pressed the console beside it and it slid to reveal another long hallway he really wasn't surprised. The entire place was hallways.
"It's not opening!" Yuffie was slamming the palm of her hand against the console, and despite her aggravation the door remained stoutly in place.
Uneven footsteps echoed through the new corridor. Vincent waved for Yuffie, and as she began to open her mouth to question him he pressed a finger to his lips, the young woman's face hardening instantly. She dashed the distance, flanking the door frame opposite him practically joining herself with the wall.
The footsteps lumbered closer.
He locked eyes with Yuffie and raised a brow in question. She shook her head and lifted the Conformer sinking into a crouch against the wall. Vincent wasn't sure if he should be comforted by the knowledge that this didn't seem to be what had attacked the young ninja.
As Vincent peered around the frame of the door something flung itself around the corner at the end of the hall. He stepped out gun leveled at the intruder.
"Colt!" Yuffie called springing up.
Just a few feet away the blond WRO soldier supported his weight against the wall while gulping in air. The man's weapon was clenched tightly in his hands. Having heard his name Colt rolled his head along the wall to towards them, face stricken with sweat and fear. At the sight of them he began motioning for the two to go back. Vincent didn't move, throwing his arm out to block Yuffie, effectively clothes lining her across the neck where she fell backwards into a clump of limbs on the floor.
Colt heaved himself away from the wall where his legs wobbled beneath him like a fawn's first steps. When he finally steadied himself he began to lurch forward practically dragging his leg.
It was his left leg, Vincent noted, that bled through a torn section of his uniform's thigh just above the knee. The skin was hideously red against the dark crimson that seeped from the wound where it seemed the muscle was having difficulty bending the man's knee. The sight brought Vincent further into the hallway, holding position to cover the man's retreat while Yuffie dropped the complaints she was firing towards him and withdrew back into the room.
He let the injured soldier go first, swiftly backing through the door behind him. The other man threw himself against the wall again, panting from all the extra effort. "I didn't sign up for this."
Yuffie was scrambling to close the door with her fingers flying across the console so that when it snapped shut the electronic locking mechanism echoed.
"Thought I could get guard duty…" Colt shook his head and let out a short pitiful laugh. "Join for the uniform she said, women love a man in uniform."
"And the scars." Yuffie supplied not as helpfully as she thought.
There were four doors. He had been allowing his mind and the demons from his past to escape their prison and hadn't taken notice of the room or really given it much thought. There were four doors leading in. The idea that this room could possibly be the central hub to this sealed off section of Shinra's underground burned within his mind. If it were the central hub then perhaps there could be a way to reopen the doors into Deepground.
He strode over to the desk where Lucrecia had been, and activated the console.
"What are you doing?" Yuffie called from where she was seated against the wall.
"I think this may be the core." Vincent turned to them, strands of his hair falling to frame his face. "There might be a way to reopen the doors."
Less than a second later the young woman was beside him where she slipped herself into the wheeled chair and spun to face the screen. "I got this Vince." Colt staggered up beside them practically shoving Yuffie out of the chair, so that she had to scramble to catch herself. "I said I had this!"
The man's brows shot up into the edges of his hair, and stated simply. "Boaz."
"Hey!" In a mixture of temper and embarrassment the young woman flushed. "Does everybody know about that?"
"Almost." The barest hint of a smile slipped its way across Vincent's features.
She stood there mouth gaping for several seconds until Colt finally spoke up. "Okay, so here's the main folder, but I'm not seeing anything related to security."
He leaned so that his head was just inches above the other man's, the metal from his claw gauntlet clanking as he pressed it against the table. "Look for anything about the structure."
The file he opened next had a long list of dates. "I don't really think-"
"Oh!" Yuffie swooped lower jostling him forward and practically leaning atop Colt as she pointed to one of the dates. "That's the night ole man Shinra was killed!"
Colt had already begun pulling up the file, a tinge of disappointment in his voice. "It's a log."
We received word minutes ago that President Shinra was found dead. This could prove an end to everyone's work as the Vice President has shown his disinterest with the project on numerous occasions. In the meantime we have been instructed to continue our research until otherwise informed. If the project is cancelled then we will all face reassignment.
I know that progress has been slow in recent years however it is my gut instinct that we are nearing a great discovery. If I can get this new information prior to the Vice President's decision then certainly even he will be forced to allow us to continue.
The key to this discovery lies primarily within the WTI test group. These subjects have shown the most resilience as well as the most practical use of the material. However, subject WTI 18 has been experiencing unforeseen side effects to the new serum. This has presented the remaining subjects of the WTI, MDL, and FLD groups with their own display of side effects that can only have come about through proximity as none of the other subjects have been exposed to the serum as of yet. These side effects began to manifest at first as increased irritability which has since progressed into delusions and paranoia. Not one of the remaining RCL subject has exhibited symptoms. My colleagues have since labeled the RCL test group as a complete failure.
Now we must focus on the remaining subjects. If we can isolate the cause of these side effects and lower the percentage of occurrence then we will finally have achieved our goal after all this time. I am hopeful.
"So basically Hojo and some other nut jobs were down here screwing around again." Yuffie sighed, shaking her head so that her dark hair brushed along the base of her jaw. Then she stood, glancing at Vincent. "I don't wanna hear anymore."
Colt scrolled down the last section of the screen then looked up at Vincent. "There's only two more entries."
"The last one." He said and found Yuffie leaning back down to read despite her complaints.
We lost contact with Lab Five during the night.
I've spent the last few hours rechecking my notes, but I'm uncertain if I can transfer the main power control back here so that we could lock down the grids. I'm at least happy to know that the security for the central lab is not linked to the main server and that our lab is secured.
There was a large white space separating the final sections.
Dr. Grier has hanged himself.
Juno and I are going to try again to see if we can reestablish the control board. If we can get the control board linked to the main server then locking the grids would allow us to create a safe path back to Deepground.
There was another section of blank space.
We weren't successful in restoring the board, though Dr. Juno was able to reestablish communication with headquarters. They aren't sending anyone to come get us. They're not coming. There isn't any way out. I'm going to
It simply ended. The there wasn't anything to give sign as towards why, although Vincent was certain he could supply his own ending to the story.
Yuffie's face was scrunched up. "They left them in here? They just abandoned these people to die?"
"With the fall of Shinra all secrets were forgotten and before that when their test subjects began to revolt, Rufus closed the doors and left an entire division sealed off to be killed by their own inventions." Vincent spoke, his own voice sounding very far away in the large lab.
"Where are the bodies?"
He was about to answer when a loud thud sang out across the room, resonating from the door opposite that Colt had come through. The others jumped like frightened birds, skittering away from the sound, their fear made deeper by the logs they had just read. The door sounded again, and again in a quick pounding of urgency from the other side.
"Somebody!"
That voice. It was the other soldier. Panic clung to his voice, but he was still alive.
Yuffie flew to the door motioning palms out with her hands as though he could see through the door. "Hold on Griffin!" She pressed the release. It grunted but stubbornly refused to open. Her fingers lit across the controls as the steel was beaten from the other side. "Come on!" When it denied her again she cursed and swung a leg in a quick arc against the door. It remained firm, so she turned and begged with her large fear riddled eyes for Vincent to fix the problem.
Wordlessly he pushed passed and pressed the release.
"Don't you leave me!" Griffon called.
The door denied them.
And then it was clear to him. The door needed a code. It couldn't be opened. Those doctors in their struggle to survive had set a code to lock the door from the inside so that in their fear driven paranoia no one could let any of their hostile subjects in. It had been the last effort to survive by terrified scientists. Vincent let his hand hover over the keypad, eyes sliding shut as his mind reeled for an answer. He would have to bear the burden. He would have to make it his decision as neither of the others could, and he knew he couldn't handle another sin.
Having finally hobbled over, Colt stood solemnly to his left staring at his toes, flinching with every pound on the door as if Griffon's fists were hitting him. To his right, Yuffie was staring up at him expectantly.
Don't make me make this decision. He stepped away. "It's not going to open."
The young woman leapt to the controls again. "Yes it will!" She growled defiantly and he could almost see her with pigtails and clenched fists glaring up at Godo. "It has to open!"
And then it was silent.
Three sets of eyes watched the door. Vincent found himself listening just as intently as the others.
With renewed urgency the pounding begun anew. "Let me in! Let me in right now!"
"Hold on!" It denied her.
"Open the door! Let me in!"
It denied her.
"Hurry!"
It denied her.
"Please!"
One loud thud and something heavy that sounded an awfully lot like a body crashed against the door. Silence cracked its whip.
Vincent looked away. Colt stared at his toes. Yuffie stared at the keypad.
"Let's go." He said and moved towards the door with the scratches.
"No!" Yuffie rubbed at her face. "We can't just leave him!"
A long suffering sigh slipped out his lips. "He's already lost."
"You don't know that!"
It wasn't going to be easy talking her into moving on. Stalking the distance towards her, Vincent's patience had been lost with the addition of another sin to his list of mistakes he had made. He intended to snap the girl into moving but when he met her burning gaze he paused at what he saw there. They were shining. Tears for a man she had only met hours ago were silently unrolling down her cheeks. Yuffie would serve Wutai well one day if all the fighting they endured didn't break her.
"If we were able to open the door, we would risk letting in whoever else is out there." Able to hold back most of the sourness in his voice, Vincent was surprised that it still held a bit of a sting.
"But we could-" The fight in her eyes was dimming just as the redness along her brow was fading as it gave way to a deeper blue.
Vincent shook his head. "He's injured." She watched Colt, his face drawn as he edged himself to the wall for support again. "Okay."
Something thumped against the door.
One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. A quick cadence panged against the door.
Three pairs of eyes flew back to it.
One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six.
"You don't think…" She started.
"I don't." He deadpanned.
Colt called out, heading towards the door. "Let's move!"
The beat continued again, giving shudder to the door in its frame.
One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six.
The scratched door opened on the first try. Codeless and simple. To no one's surprise within it was another hallway, although shorter than most with its ten or so feet where it veered to the right.
Yuffie and Colt rushed in. His arm was slung around her shoulder for support. Vincent ducked in behind them.
One. Two. Three.
And pressed the release.
Four. Five. Six.
When he turned to move on he knew by the expression on her face that the door didn't close fast enough to hide the view of the other door flying passed free of its frame. "We have to keep moving."
Open mouthed Yuffie nodded and disappeared around the corner where she and Colt's shoes echoed against metal. His heart should have sunk when he turned the corner and saw stairs. They were going to be much slower in escaping while having to climb stairs. The pair had just made it to the top of the flight. He took the stairs two at a time and rounded the corner where he made to take Colt from Yuffie. He was much stronger, he could support more weight making it possible for them to move faster, but the ninja pulled back shaking her head fiercely.
"I'd rather your hands be free." She said, pulling the blond soldier back towards her. Colt let himself be pulled like a doll between the two.
It still shocked him sometimes to see how much trust his comrades put in him. He wasn't really certain that he had ever done anything to really deserve that trust, but he wasn't going to allow it to be misplaced. She allowed him to support the injured soldier long enough for her to strap her weapon to her back so that she could use both arms for support. Then the two hurried together like some deformed creature up the stairs.
From a few steps up came a grumble. "You know I'm not exactly decrepit."
"I guess you never heard the saying," Yuffie laughed smarmily, releasing the man and leaping the last few steps up to the next landing. "You don't have to be the fastest to escape a behemoth, just not the slowest."
It was actually good advice. Vincent moved on around the soldier who unaided had only been able to climb up two steps. The chatter ended as just below the cadence began to drum up from the door below. At the sound Colt whitened and waved Yuffie back where despite the rhythm below them she laughed and joked about his running speed. With Colt supported the two covered the next two flights much quicker with the sound pressing them on like the whip of a horseman, and that's how it went for four more flights. Vincent waited at the bottom until they had cleared a landing and then he would take their place where his crimson eyes never leaving the bottom.
At last above him he could hear their cries of relief.
"A door!"
"I'll cry if there's more stairs."
Just as the two had managed to open the door Vincent arrived on the final platform sweeping into the bluish room behind them. A faint wave of feeling very high up washed over him as he hurriedly scanned the room. The walls were of the palest blue and the floor a deep navy. The ceiling was a brilliant sapphire like the sky. It didn't seem right that a room this color would exist within the maze of white hallways. It also struck Vincent as odd as there was nothing in the room save the walls and another door. It was entirely empty. Yuffie was locking the door behind them, so he crossed the small blue room and began to open the door.
Except it didn't budge.
The idea that struck him was both brilliant and unbelievable. Had they been led here? To an inescapable room?
When the door refused him again his next thought was mirrored by Yuffie's trembling voice. "We're trapped."
.
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Whew! I didn't intend for this chapter to be this long. This chapter was originally much longer and I had to cut several sections from it to keep it at a decent length. The villains were going to be introduced in this chapter, however it seemed best to move their section to the next chapter. Many of our favorite characters are going to be making an apearance soon. As always constructive criticism is always welcome. Leave me a review! ^_^