Disclaimer: I don't own any of this, sorry. Nivei - white, Pennae - wings.

Angeal walked to the elevator and stopped, the security cameras would be recording him even now. He watched the elevator come up, sighing, if he ducked out and took the stairs then they would think something was up. Maybe if he planned this carefully then he could slip out without arousing suspicion, he hit the button for floor 48 before looking around the cart.

Fortunately he was taking today's trip alone, if Sephiroth was here he'd be tried for insubordination. Not to mention he'd have to explain something about where he got the keycard, and he had a hunch his commander wouldn't be thrilled if he said something about Genesis. The elevator doors opened and he walked out heading for the training room waiting outside pretending to work the electronic lock waiting for the camera to sweep. The camera behind him swiveled and pointed away from him and he took off at a sprint as the door opened sliding shut as the camera focused on it. By that time Angeal was already at the stairs watching intently for the camera guarding the stairs to move. It swept away from the door, Angeal darted forward and shut the door quietly, and the camera hadn't noticed anything. He sighed, now he had to go down who knows how many floors worth of stairs, shaking off the hopelessness he started his decent.

Back upstairs Sephiroth, Lazard and Reeve were all making their way to Angeal's apartment with a keycard for access to the lab. It had taken a while but when Reeve and Lazard had made their speeches, accompanied by murderous looks from Sephiroth, the other Executives with the exception of Hojo agreed.

Sephiroth walked up to the door of Angeal's apartment hearing the radio blasting, "Angeal we have the card." He knocked. There was no reply, "Angeal! Open up!" The only thing Sephiroth could hear was the radio. He stepped back preparing to ram the door open.

Lazard pushed on the handle, the door swung open a little, "it's open."

Sephiroth blinked, that wasn't like Angeal, even if he was home he kept his door locked, the General pushed the door open all the way looking around. The balcony window door stood cracked open, Angeal didn't appear to be in the room, Sephiroth immediately ran over to the balcony door flinging it open and running over to the railing. "It all makes sense, he was a wreck after Genesis disappeared he went into total suicidal despair after losing Ari and jumped off the balcony." He muttered scanning the ground for a body.

Lazard sighed, "I think you're overreacting. If he did why did he take all his combat gear with him?"

"How would I know?" Sephiroth replied.

Reeve shook his head walking over to the pair, "okay so he's missing. However I have a feeling he went to the Training rooms to let off some steam."

"How do you know?" Sephiroth asked.

"Security camera reports showed him entering the area," Reeve replied.

Sephiroth just about smacked himself in the forehead, "of course he wanted us to think that and started down by himself!"

Lazard pushed his glasses up his nose, "it certainly makes more sense then him jumping to his death." He sighed, "take the keycard and try to intercept him from doing something stupid."

Sephiroth took the card and nodded, "right…" he strode out of the room, "damn you Angeal, why is it you never talk to me anymore? If Genesis was here you would go to him then you'd both come to me. What happened?" He folded his arms closing his eyes as he walked over to elevator and leaned against the wall of the car.

Downstairs though, Angeal managed to hold back a sneeze remembering something his mother once told him. 'If you sneeze then it means someone's talking about you behind your back.' He sighed, glancing around the camera was on the move, he darted across the hall and sighed, he hated having to dart around like a rat. He'd made it below the levels of the Plate and potentially even the slums, no one knew just how far down the Shin-Ra building went except for a few people.

He walked up to the bulk doors pulling the keycard Genesis gave him out of his pocket and sliding it through the reader. However it wasn't the door in front of him that opened it was the wall to his right that opened. Behind it was a long white hall that looked way too clean for comfort he slipped into it hearing the wall slam shut behind him. Turning around he checked around the door, there was no way to go back now. He saw someone standing at the end of the hall as he turned around.

"Genesis!" He ran down the hallway to the man in red standing there.

Genesis looked up as Angeal came running up to him, "so you made it?"

Angeal gazed around the hall, "where are we?"

"Half a mile under the Shin-Ra building," he walked over to the dead end of the hall, "we're taking the back door in."

Angeal watched as door opened up revealing a very different area; it looked like a whole city under the city. They walked out onto a rocky cliff overlooking a street with a clear view of the city. "Where are we?"

"Welcome to the Underground Lab my friend," Genesis replied.

Angeal felt his eyes going wide as he looked around, the city had collapsed buildings and looked as though someone had a complete disregard for habitation. In the middle stood a huge mako reactor labeled 00. "Mako Reactor 0, I thought it wasn't supposed to exist…" He looked around examining the ruined city, "where's Ariella?"

He noticed Genesis was nowhere to be found, he sighed, "why don't you ever tell me where you're going? What is it you want me to do?" He had half a mind to chase after Genesis but shook his head, Ariella was really close now and there was no turning back.

Taking off at a run he leaped up onto a roof of a nearby building built into the cliff. He took off leaping across to the next roof stopping as he saw some people in outfits of grey with electric blue lines standing around below. Crouching down he started to listen to what they were saying hoping for some information.

"Hey did you hear about the new member of Alpha Division they brought in the other day?" One said.

"Nah I didn't you Kenny?" The second looked over at the remaining one named Kenny.

The one called Kenny nodded, "Yeah, they said the kid's a host to one of the legendary monsters. I didn't believe it until I saw her take the full nine from the Emperor. She didn't flinch at all, but her eyes were all crazy one was gold and the other was silver but when he finished her eyes were blue and green. Then he threw her back in the Zoo."

"Dude, what'd she do to get full nine?" the second one asked.

"I heard she killed a Restrictor, with one hand," Kenny replied.

The first shook his head, "no I heard it was because she tried to escape."

"Wow, I sure would hate to see what would happen if she became my superior," the second one shuddered. The two unknowns stood up to continue their patrol leaving Kenny alone.

Angeal leaped off of the building and grabbed Kenny by the throat, "where's the Zoo?"

"Ah ne-near the Reactor, ya can't miss it!" He choked.

Angeal squeezed his neck hard enough to stop the flow of blood to his brain for a moment before leaping back up to the roofs and taking off leaving Kenny's unconscious body behind. He looked around before hearing roaring from a distance and an explosion erupting from the city.

"Well, well, well, it's been awhile since I saw a Terra SOLDIER, how are you doing Angeal?" A voice behind him spoke.

Angeal stopped cold, it was a voice he hadn't heard since Wutai, the second in command of Squad 14 of SOLDIER, "Dante, it's been a long time."

Dante Kobold stood there robed in black, pulling off his mask, "been a long time my ass, you didn't care about our disappearance. You were too concerned about your precious Genesis."

Angeal drew his claymore and pointed it at Dante, "shut up."

"What's a matter? Touch a nerve did I? Pathetic, you still can't let got of the past can you. Face it you lost your best friend through your own mistakes, he'll never forgive you for letting him go." Dante smirked.

Angeal clenched his fists tighter, "I said shut up."

Dante raised a hand up putting the second knuckle of his pointer finger on his right hand up to his mouth, "touchy aren't we? You're pathetic, you couldn't stop Genesis and so you decided to adopt a little brat in an attempt to make amends. And you couldn't even protect her. I don't know how you live with yourself, who's next? Sephiroth? Lazard? Your family?"

Angeal's eyes started mako glowing as charged Dante, "I thought I told you to shut up!"

Dante stopped his swing with two fingers, "temper, temper I wouldn't have expected you to behave so rashly. You always preached that anger in combat was the fastest way to get your head lopped off. I heard that speech so many times I could puke. Now look at you, you hypocrite, here you are preaching pretty words about how anger leads to reckless decisions and clouded judgment when you're standing here with just that problem. Not to mention you always preached pretty words about how not to let someone fall into enemy hands. Honestly you're such a contradiction."

Angeal brought up his free hand and slugged Dante as hard as he could in the nose. Dante staggered back still smirking, "I do believe you've broken my nose." He pinched it resetting it and cracking his neck. "You can't beat me, I'm a Restrictor now, we're the strongest there is and ever will be. Not even a Terra SOLDIER can beat me."

Angeal landed glaring at Dante bringing his sword hand, for him his right, up to his head before grasping the but with the left hand and setting up into a thrusting stance with the blade parallel to the ground. He ran forward stabbing at Dante, who side stepped, Angeal turned his stab into a slash and forced Dante to block with a weapon he had concealed under his cloak. It looked like a katana but it had a trigger and ammunition chamber, Dante leaped back drawing it fully, along with another one so he was duel wielding them. He noticed Angeal eyeing his weapons, "you like? They're called gunblades, all of us Restrictors use them, combining the firepower of a gun with the melee capabilities of the sword."

Angeal studied the weapons carefully, he watched as Dante raised up the right blade pointing it at him and puling the trigger. Angeal barely managed to dodge out of the way of having his head blow off and felt the bullet graze his cheek as he sidestepped. Wincing he brought up the claymore and blocked the next few rounds before taking a risk and moving into melee range. He swung at Dante's left clavicle forcing the Restrictor to block him, however Angeal's force of swing not to mention the bullet fractures in the steel along with the blocking weapon's unknown composition, broke the claymore at the point of impact.

The sword half flew up in the air before coming down and hitting Angeal along the right side of his back over his shoulder. He let out a shout of pain as Restrictor leaped back, Angeal dropped to one knee clutching his shoulder with his left hand panting. He could feel something moving inside of him longing to get out. "No, stay inside… please, I'm not a monster…" he muttered under his breath. Despite his desperate pleading, two wings came bursting out of his shoulder, one long, and the other small. Both were covered in blood but they shook off as if by a mind of their own, revealing long white feathers covering the entire length from primary to down. Angeal let out a howl of pain and despair as they sprouted from his back, "no I don't want to be a monster," he continued muttering.