By a Fraction of a Degree
A FFVII Fanfiction work by findthetiger129
Rated T for Violence and Language.
I do not own Final Fantasy VII, or any of the characters, trademarks or likenesses from Final Fantasy VII or its spinoffs. That honor goes to Square-Enix.
Part II: Reunion
Chapter 21, Descent into the Nightmare
December 21st [ ν ] – εуλ 0007
The next morning found everyone at the airfield, preparing to board the helicopter to fly over the mountains. Cid hadn't bothered coming to see them off. When Freya had asked, the flight crew told her he had most likely gone back to the rocket. Cissnei was privately relieved. Better that there was no further risk of any altercations over what had happened with Shera. As Freya and Cissnei ran the pre-flight checks, the others were hard at work, loading up supplies. The younger Turk was finishing conducting her visual inspection and had gone back into the cockpit where Freya was checking the switches and rotor position.
"All green on the visual." She dropped into the copilot's seat.
Freya did not look up as she continued working with the control panel. "Got it. Are we almost loaded?"
"Kunsel says it's only a couple more minutes." Cissnei looked out over the airfield, taking it in with a sigh.
"Something wrong?" Freya asked.
The younger Turk shook her head. "No, just thinking." There was a lot to think about. Apparently Mao had been directed to them by Veld after he'd called the former director from Nibelheim. Those strange people in black cloaks were definitely worrisome. But not nearly as worrisome as what they were muttering. What could it mean? Her old partner had instructed them to meet him outside the village upon their arrival. In the meantime, he planned to investigate the village, though he would leave the mansion until they arrived. Shortly afterward, they had contacted Dr. Rayleigh. The doctor had been understandably curious about the cloaked figures, but after she heard that one of them had mentioned the word "Reunion", she had immediately asked Freya to collect samples from one of them if possible. If they were capable of communication, she did stipulate that it be with permission (much to Freya's indignation on it being assumed that as Turks, they wouldn't at least try to ask first), but this development was definitely cause for concern.
Zack didn't recall seeing any of these strange cloaked figures when he'd left the village, but that could easily be written off as him being too busy escaping with Cloud to pay much attention to what noncombatants in the village were doing. She hadn't seen anyone either when she'd come to investigate. She wrapped her arms around herself as she leaned back in the seat, remembering how thin both men had looked after the escape. The hollow, empty, look in Cloud's eyes that had remained until even a little after the Turks had captured them in the wastes. The determined but fearful glint in Zack's when they stood facing each other on the beach. When she had decided she would risk everything to save him. She still hadn't even told him her real name. She knew she could never take Aerith's place in the SOLDIER's heart, but part of her still yearned to at least have her feelings acknowledged…
…"You let him go didn't you?" She was sitting alone in the bar after returning from the mission to Nibelheim. There was no lying to her dark-haired partner. Mao himself had been from Gongaga once, though he'd left at a fairly young age. Zack wouldn't have been old enough to know him before he'd traveled to Wutai, back when there was still an illusion of peace. Even so, she'd talked at length to Mao about him, and the swordsman Turk was no fool. He was old enough to recognize infatuation when he saw it.
She nursed her drink carelessly and didn't answer, her thoughts on the SOLDIER whom she hoped was miles away from Nibelheim by now. Mao sat down next to her, ordering a beer. "I'm only saying this because you're my partner, but… listen. You do realize where he's headed, right? You know he's not going to give up on the Ancient just because you saved his skin, right?"
Cissnei remained quiet. Mao looked hard at her as his lips moved, speaking her real name, imploringly, before going on. "This is a big risk. If anyone finds out what you've done, you're throwing away your career with Shinra and possibly your safety." he looked away from her, running a hand down the scar lining his face. "I know you don't like what I'm saying, but… I'm worried."
Cissnei looked up at him, her eyes filling with tears. Mao had been her partner from the beginning, and after leaving the orphanage, he was the closest thing to a big brother she'd ever known. She felt her voice cracking into a sob as she spoke. "I know…"
"Cissnei?" Freya's voice called her back to the present.
"Hmm?"
"I'm almost done with pre-flight. Could you check on everyone else's progress?"
"Oh, right. Sure." She climbed out of her seat and headed back into the passenger compartment. The timing was perfect, as Cloud had just brought in the last of the supplies and the others were starting to find their seats. Zack came in after Cloud after having done a final check around the vehicle to make sure they hadn't forgotten anything before asking Cissnei "So, are we all set?" No one missed the fake cheerfulness in his voice.
"Yes. We'll head out in just a minute," she answered before ducking back into the cockpit to give Freya the all clear. A few minutes later, the helicopter was flying south, towards the village where the nightmares had all started.
It was still morning when the chopper began to descend a few hundred yards away from the village's main entrance. As it lowered, Cloud looked out over the familiar houses in shock. It was exactly as he remembered growing up. Looking beside him he saw that Tifa had come to the same conclusion. This couldn't be right. No, more than that, it was beyond wrong.
Freya brought the helicopter in for a touchdown and as everyone got out, he saw Mao waiting for them a safe distance away. Cissnei brushed past him, a smile on her face as she hurried forward, putting her arms around the other Turk in a hug. "It's good to see you too." The swordsman laughed as she pulled away.
Cissnei spent a moment looking him over, taking in his traveling clothes before the others caught up. "Anything new?" Freya asked as she approached.
The sword-wielding Turk shook his head. "No, they're still wandering around aimlessly. I did what you asked and tried to talk to one of them, but they just keep rattling on about that thing they're calling Reunion. Makes my skin crawl to be honest."
"Well, I got the equipment, so I guess if we can't reason with them, we'll have to do this the old fashioned way," Freya said.
At that point Cloud felt Tifa's hand on his shoulder. "I don't want to hear any more of that. Let's take a look around."
"You sure that's a good idea?" He asked.
"I've got you with me, don't I?" Tifa looked back at him with one of her gentle smiles, and Cloud shrugged.
"I guess you do."
Zack had apparently heard them talking because the taller SOLDIER appeared behind them. "I'll go with you. I think the others'll look around for a bit too, but we're going to meet up in front of the mansion at about noon. We'll be handling that as a group."
"All right." Cloud made sure his two swords were secure and then the two swordsmen followed Tifa to the village entrance. As they reached the main entrance, he heard two more sets of footsteps behind him and saw that Aerith and Kunsel had caught up with them. He allowed them to pull level with Zack before following Tifa to the house that used to be hers. She walked up to the old familiar door, first knocking and then finding it not quite latched and letting herself in. Upon entering, Cloud had to admit, it looked very much like the house his friend had grown up in, but there were subtle differences a craftsman would not have been able to account for. The biggest difference, however, were the two hunched figures wandering around in the main entrance.
They didn't even seem to be aware they had visitors. They just lurched about, muttering to themselves. "Sephiroth… must find it... become… one… Reunion…"
Tifa gave them a wide berth as she walked to the stairs and started to climb them. Cloud kept pace with her. Odd, how this place stood out to him as so familiar, yet he could only really recall being here maybe once or twice. She walked to her room and stood at the door, looking in with a pained expression. This was so wrong. Cloud remembered the flames on his face as the village had burned to the ground. None of this should be here…
The martial artist walked over to the piano for a second, running her hands along the ivory keys, before returning to the door where Cloud and the others waited respectfully. "I think I've seen all I want to see here," she said softly. "Let's go."
Cloud nodded before allowing her to pass him as they returned back to the first floor and out. They looked around the village before Cloud's eyes landed on the house he had once shared with his mother, and found himself walking towards it. In his mind, he could almost see her, throwing the door open to him, welcoming him back home, but he knew it wasn't going to happen even as he knocked. To his surprise, the door opened revealing an unfamiliar older woman. "May I help you?" she asked.
It took a moment for Cloud to find his words. "…I lived in this house until I was fourteen… but this town was burned down..."
The women's face suddenly constricted in fear. "Are you sick… saying those things? Get away from here!" With that, she slammed the door in his face.
Cloud stood there for a moment, stunned before Zack walked up behind him, putting a hand on his shoulder. "Come on, let's go." He allowed his friend to guide him away as the others followed until they stood near the water tower.
"It's okay Zack, I'm all right, I think," he said.
"If you're sure. Why don't we take a moment to calm down though, okay?" It was at then that he realized his fists were clenched at his sides and allowed them to relax. On seeing the movement Zack let go of him. "That's better. Was there anything else we needed to see here or are we ready to go?"
"I think we've seen more than we want of this already," Tifa said angrily.
Zack shifted his weight nervously, rolling his shoulders and stretching as though to shake out tension. "I hate to say it, but if we go into the mansion, it's probably going to get worse from here."
"Must… get… it… Sephiroth… where are you?... Reunion…" The cloaked woman the Turks had subdued behind one of the houses continued to mumble as she lay on the ground, easily restrained by a pair of handcuffs behind her back as Mao kept her in a regulation hold for subduing suspects. Cissnei exposed the woman's arm as Freya applied a tourniquet and inserted the needle. The woman didn't even seem to react to the pain, which was probably the most unnerving aspect of the whole thing. Once the procedure was complete, the lady Turk pulled back the hood, doing her professional best not to wince at the deathly white hair on a scalp that had definitely once been covered by more, and collected a sample. Having acquired the lock of white strands, she placed it in a sealed bag next to the ones already containing a swab with skin cells and the vial of blood.
"All right, done. We can let her go now." She removed the gloves she was wearing and disposed of them in a fourth bag which Cissnei promptly burned using a Fire materia.
Mao undid the cuffs and backed away with a look bordering on disgust as the hooded figure shambled away like nothing had happened. "There is definitely something wrong with these people," He observed.
"Agreed." Freya picked up the bags. "The cooler in the chopper is prepped right?"
"Already taken care of. It's properly insulated, and filled with plenty of dry ice," Cissnei confirmed.
"Good." Without another word, the three renegades walked back to the helicopter to stow the samples before the planned meeting at the mansion's gate.
When Cloud arrived at the mansion with the others who'd gone to investigate the village, he saw that Barret and Nanaki were waiting for them at the gate.
"This place gives me the shivers," Barret commented, looking over the wrought iron fence.
"You're not alone there," Zack replied. He joined the gunman in staring up at the mansion, his jaw set in an uncharacteristically serious expression.
Aerith walked up behind Zack and took his left hand in both of hers. "Are you all right?" she asked.
"No," he admitted, "But that doesn't matter. Once the Turks get here, we're going in."
Cloud walked up to the fence, resting his hand on the gate. The place was old, and probably in disrepair. There was definitely something ominous about the old house. He would have felt it, even if he hadn't known what had happened to him and Zack here. He couldn't remember what had happened to stir this reaction in his thoughts, but he found he was somewhat afraid, and yet, oddly, drawn to the place. It was a disquieting thing to realize this was where he and Zack had both been… where Hojo had made them into what they were now. His hand tightened on the iron bars. Guilt twisted his gut as he realized his own weakness had made getting out of here so much harder. If only he hadn't been so useless they might have been able to escape sooner…
"Hey, somethin' wrong?" He heard Barret behind him.
He released the gate and looked up at the black man with a noncommittal shrug. That was when they heard three sets of footsteps and looked down the trail. Freya, Cissnei, and Mao were walking up the hill and as they approached, Freya asked "Is everyone here?"
Once everyone sounded off to the affirmative, they cautiously swung open the gate and walked in towards the mansion's two large front doors. Kunsel and Mao approached first, each grabbing a door and pulling them open so everyone else could walk inside. There was a collective intake of breath from everyone who hadn't been here before as they took in the foyer with its vaulted ceiling and dusty chandelier. The room was backlit by sunlight filtering through the three towering windows on the wall behind the balcony connecting the second floor, which was accessible by a set of stairs curving up from the right of the foyer.
As they stood there, taking in the ominous silence of the place, Cissnei took a couple of steps forward, looking down at the floor as Freya walked up behind her. "Someone's been here since the last time I investigated," she observed. "Might even have been Hojo, I'm not sure."
"You came here?" Zack asked.
"After I found you and Cloud," Cissnei confirmed. "Unfortunately, Veld was here too and my investigation got a little derailed."
"What happened?"
"AVALANCHE happened, and then the army happened. The president let Scarlet off her leash and said she could try to take us out because I was spotted helping Veld look for the support materia." The younger Turk thought for a moment before speaking again. "I wonder if Vincent knows anything about Hojo's last stay here. It might be good to ask him."
"Who the hell's Vincent?" Barret demanded.
Cissnei ignored him and walked to the library. "I don't know if they moved the key to the room where they kept his coffin or not. Fan out, maybe we can find a clue…"
"Coffin?" Yuffie exclaimed, slightly alarmed. "What is he, a vampire?"
Cissnei shrugged. "He didn't say, but according to Veld, he used to be a Turk."
The group dispersed searching around for clues, though it wasn't long before Nanaki spotted a scrap of paper in the small office off the foyer. He approached Zack with it in his mouth.
"What'cha got there?" The SOLDIER asked.
"I found it in the other room. I think there's more than one kind of ink on it. There's a portion that smells different from the rest of the paper."
After calling everyone back to the foyer, Zack unfolded the paper and read it aloud. "I must get rid of all of those who stand in the way of my research. Even that one from the Turks. I scientifically altered him and put him to sleep in the basement. If you want to find him, then search the area. But… this is merely a game I thought of. You don't have to participate if you don't want to." As he read, another scrap of paper fell out from behind the first and Cloud snatched it up before it hit the floor to return it to his friend. Zack thanked him and then looked at the new piece of paper. "It says we need to try to open the safe, and it looks like there are clues to the numbers that'll get it open."
Zack read off the clues and then everyone dispersed again, going off in groups of two and three. Cloud found Tifa next to him as they followed Yuffie up the stairs and to the left as Freya and Kunsel went right across the balcony. He found that he vaguely remembered this part of the mansion. He'd been asked to guard the area and had run some errands for Zack up here during the week leading up to Sephiroth's rampage. It seemed odd to be back here, especially given what Zack had said about the aftermath.
The three of them wandered into the first room on the right and found themselves in a library, though one wall was taken up by a writing desk and a rather large safe. "I guess that's what we're trying to open, huh?" Yuffie tried to take a stab at conversation.
"I guess," Cloud agreed. They walked around the room for a bit, searching for anything that might correspond to the clues, but eventually decided to move on. Tifa led the way to the door at the end of the hall and as she pushed it open, Cloud found they were in a greenhouse filled with potted plants, but at the center of the room, sat a box.
"Hmm… plants expel oxygen, don't they?" Tifa mused aloud.
Cloud walked forward and checked the lid. Lo and behold, the number was there. One down.
It was several minutes later when everyone convened in the library. Kunsel knelt in front of the safe with Freya next to him as Zack read out the numbers, which he'd scrawled in the margins as everyone else had reported their findings.
"I think we're ready," Zack said, once everyone sounded off.
"Hang on. That's only three clues," Kunsel interjected. "Where's the last one?"
"Maybe the guy who wrote the note couldn't count?" Yuffie suggested.
Zack snorted derisively. "Not likely…" Then he remembered what Nanaki had said earlier. "You said there was more than one kind of ink on this note didn't you?"
The red lion nodded. "I could smell it."
"I've got an idea. Does anyone have a light?" Zack looked around at the crowd in the room. Everyone checked their pockets until finally Mao came up with a small lighter he generally used for starting campfires. Zack clicked it on and held it carefully under the paper. As the others gathered around, his expression became one of triumph, and if he wasn't holding the lighter, he would have fist-pumped the air. "We've got it."
Kunsel placed a hand on the dial as Zack began to read out the combination. "Okay, the first number is right 36."
The brown-haired 1st turned the dial and it clicked.
"Left, 10." The dial clicked again.
"Right, 59." Another click.
"Right, 97."
Almost as soon as Kunsel clicked the last number, the door unsealed, and then, his hazel eyes widened and he promptly threw his weight against the door as the safe gave an eerie shudder.
Freya gave him a surprised look. "Is something wrong?"
The most anyone could get from him at that point was "Weapons! Now!" And then he was thrown across the room as whatever it was inside the safe suddenly burst loose.
A huge red and purple… thing… started filling the space in the library as everyone backed out the door and began to take position along the balcony. Zack and Cloud stayed behind to cover Kunsel as he picked himself up and the monster swung a long red tentacle at the two of them. They held stance as the brown-haired SOLDIER joined their ranks, casting Barrier on Cloud and then on Zack in quick succession.
The monster brushed past them (though how it managed to squeeze out the library door, much less fit in the safe, remained a mystery too large to ever be solved) and took a flying leap down into the foyer below. The three swordsmen hurried after it while Freya fired a blast from the balcony and Barret let loose a barrage from his gun arm. Mao joined them, leaping after it to slice at the monster's purple half with his katana as the SOLDIERs flew down the stairs.
As soon as blade met flesh, the monster howled with rage. Zack raced in, covering Mao's escape as it brought up a huge arm to swing and he blocked it, before Cloud also jumped forth, bringing a powerful swing at the monster's gut. It let go of Zack's blade and swung with its red tentacle, sending the three SOLDIERs flying towards the stairs. Zack crashed into the ground, wincing but otherwise okay, as he picked himself up and saw that Mao had managed to get behind the monster, sheltering in a spot under the stairs that wasn't quite as easy to hit.
Channeling a limit break, he shouldered the Buster Sword, diving in as memories of Angeal tempered his fists and he landed blow after blow on his target. Somewhere above him, he felt the temperature drop while Freya used Blizzara and he rolled out of the way before he too could get caught in the spell. His attention temporarily distracted by the lady Turk, the monster hopped back up to the balcony with a roar, attempting to grab at Freya but only managed to knock her aside as she rolled away. Barret only just managed to pull Aerith out of the attack range as Nanaki began casting.
"Tifa!" He heard Cloud racing for the stairs as the martial artist began casting a spell next to the flame-tailed lion and almost at the same time as he caused the beast to erupt in flames, poisonous green acid dripped into the monster's face. It roared again, releasing its hold on the balustrades as it fell back down to Zack and Kunsel.
Zack felt another limit break channel up on the balcony as Freya fired a particularly powerful shotgun blast at their enemy. The ammunition combusted on impact with a loud bang, knocking the beast back for a few moments before he noticed it beginning to change again. It was shifting into a new form, turning red, with a shaggy mane of hair and tentacles arching out where the arms used to be. Shiva, what was this thing?
Not to be outdone, Cloud paused at the landing on the stairs, and held his sword upright before slicing the air with a two handed strike and sending a beam of energy at the monster. Zack and Kunsel both jumped, angling their swords into the fur as it roared again before backing off as two shuriken hit their mark from the far side of the balcony. It was then that a flaming monster materialized on top of their opponent and Zack saw that Aerith stood in front of Barret, her hand out and the Ifrit materia glowing in the bangle on her wrist. Ifrit engulfed his target before disappearing, leaving the hairy monster dead on the floor.
Zack shouldered the Buster Sword with a sigh of relief and then looked up at his girlfriend with a grin. "Thanks Aerith!"
The Cetra leaned on the balustrades at the landing. "Is everyone okay?"
"I think we are, mostly," Cloud said as he walked past her, his eyes on Tifa, appraising whether or not she'd been injured. To Zack, she seemed all right, but as Tifa's gaze met the blonde swordsman's, Cloud seemed to remember himself and looked away, turning a little red at his own concern. Everyone regrouped on the balcony with Zack in the lead as they cautiously made their way back into the library. It seemed to be empty of any further monsters. Something glittered at Zack's left boot as he entered and he picked up what seemed to be another summon materia. Odin, from the feel of it.
He pocketed the materia and moved out of the way as Kunsel tried once again to look into the safe. As Cissnei stood next to him he pulled out what looked to be a book of some kind, which Nanaki recognized, saying that it belonged to Cosmo Canyon and asked that it be placed among his belongings in the small sack he carried. There was also a small key. Cissnei picked it up and looked at it. "I think this is it," she said. "Come on, he's probably still in the same chamber."
Across the Western Continent at the Gold Saucer, a man walked through the crowds towards the Battle Square. As Dyne approached the man standing at the entrance, a woman screamed, diving into one of the tunnels leading to a different part of the Saucer. He had raised the gun grafted to his left arm and unleashed a barrage of bullets on those standing in his wake. He let out a cry of hopeless anguish as he wreaked his desperate vengeance on the guards who were coming into the lobby to stop him, trying vainly to subdue him. Eventually, he was the only one there, as everyone lay still. He looked around as though unsure what to do, angry tears falling down his face, and then, as though following orders, he walked until he came to the trap door leading down to Corel Prison. Oddly fitting, he thought, that written around the hole in lacquer and paint, were the words, Gateway to Heaven.
He could already hear the guards coming as he lifted the door and climbed down into the bowels of the desert that was all that remained of the south end of the once-bustling mining town that had been his home. The place that had also once been home to his daughter Marlene, and his wife, Eleanor. Murdered at Shinra's hand, both of them. He didn't give a damn, all he wanted was for everything to end. To destroy it all! As he reached the bottom of the supports he was climbing, he didn't even pay attention to the other inmates in this prison, except those who got in his way. Those he gunned down without remorse… no there was remorse, but it was the remorse of a man who had lost everything, a man who no longer cared what anyone else could lose.
He limped his way towards the graveyard where inmates would sometimes take time to bury their deceased friends and sat down, the hot tears still streaming down his face. He didn't know how long he sat there, with irrational thoughts coursing through his mind. Angry thoughts of Barret, who'd lost his grip when they'd been attacked by Shinra troops. Of that #$%^ who'd callously destroyed his home. Oh, how he would love to have taken that scrawny neck of hers and wrung it until she no longer drew breath. Or shot her skull full of holes, along with those faceless troopers who had destroyed his world, burned his friends and neighbors alive. As the day drew to dusk, the thoughts in his mind, addled by the heat and the dying flow of adrenaline, turned in a final direction. Release.
He looked down at the weapon grafted to his left arm. If there was one way to destroy the world… his world at least… really, that was the only one left, and it was in shambles as it was… that would do it…
Zack was doing his absolute best to stay calm as everyone walked towards the bedroom with the secret passage that led down to the basement. The very idea of going down there again was more than he really wanted to contemplate, but he had resigned himself to it. As they entered the room, he took the lead, pulling the mechanism that opened the door revealing the spiral staircase. He remembered climbing it as a blur, his thoughts still muddled from the mako as he gently lifted his friend up each and every step. He'd already been bleeding from fighting the monsters in the caverns, but he only recalled the injuries as a dull pain through the mental haze. He looked back at the others. "Here's the thing. What we see down there… It's not going to be pretty. If you don't want to go, you'd better speak up now."
The Turks naturally remained silent. It was already understood they were going. Aerith walked up behind Zack and took his hand. "I'm going, whether you like it or not." Zack tried to smile, but it didn't make it to his face. He was grateful, but at the same time, he would give anything for her not to have to.
"Me too," Tifa added. "We decided we'd come before we even got here."
Cloud looked uncomfortable again, but his jaw was set. His answer written on his face. Kunsel's too. They'd already talked it over at length.
"I believe we'll stay up here then," Nanaki spoke up. "This is personal business, and I certainly wouldn't want to interfere with it."
Yuffie took one look down the spiral staircase and went back to where Nanaki was sitting. Barret frowned. "Ya sure ya'll be all righ' down there?"
"Pretty sure. Three SOLDIERs and three Turks alone should be plenty." Zack said, trying to push some of his old bravado back into his voice.
"Well then, I'll jes' go stand guard at the door in case those guys in the cloaks start somethin'. I don' trust 'em even if all they do is talk crazy." After checking his gun arm for ammunition, the AVALANCHE leader walked back towards the stairs.
Yuffie waved half-heartedly as Zack led the way down with Kunsel at his back, both with their hands on their swords. "Stay close," he called up behind him.
"Don't worry," Cissnei called from behind the pair of hazel colored lights that were Kunzel's eyes. "I pulled a flashlight out of the helicopter's tool box so those of us without SOLDIER senses should be okay."
"I'm glad you thought of that," Freya admitted, and as Zack rounded the outer edge of the steps he saw Freya's faintly glowing eyes as she carefully picked her way down at the back, just in front of Cloud. "When I first got back on the job some of the others used to ask me if I could see in the dark. But I can't."
As Zack continued halfway around the next segment of the staircase, he saw a cone of light extending from the flashlight in Cissnei's hand before he turned his attention back to his own path down. It took them a minute or two to reach the bottom, and there they found themselves in the hollowed out caverns under the mansion. Straight in front of him, was the path that led the way to the labs, and he could already feel his heartrate accelerating. There was no mad scientist waiting there, he knew, but he was still biting down hard on the impulse to turn right back around and go back up into the daylight where he was sure he was supposed to be. Cissnei and Aerith caught up with him at that moment and the younger renegade pulled ahead of them, her flashlight in hand. "Vincent's room should be this way," she said. "Follow me."
As if that alone would keep away the dark thoughts in his mind, Zack focused on the beam of light. Aerith's hand was in his as they walked down the path.
Behind them he heard Tifa asking nervously "What's that smell?"
"Whatever it is, we probably don't want to know," Cloud answered her.
They walked in a little further before a new smell assaulted Zack's senses. Mako… he swallowed hard. The smell had filtered out this far from the lab? He shook his head. 'Not now Zack, get a hold of yourself.'
…"We're here." He turned away from the huge door that stood at the end of the cavern as Cissnei paused in front of another door that was locked. Pulling out the key, she inserted it into the lock and he heard it click. Glad for a distraction as the younger Turk moved back, he stepped up and pushed the door open, leaving a space for her to walk through.
"Vincent? Hello?" she called into the room, shining the flashlight onto a dusty coffin in the center of the room. Zack looked around and was relieved to see that the light didn't splash out much further than that. The other coffins were open, and there were bodies in them. Funereal urns lined the back wall. He shivered as he wondered morbidly if this was where he and Cloud would have ended up if things had been different.
'No… don't think about that. Don't think about that! Focus!' Next to him, he felt Aerith grasp his hand a little tighter. She was definitely also trying not to focus on the area outside the beam of the flashlight.
He glanced beside him as he heard another set of combat boots next to Aerith's shoes and saw Cloud's glowing blue eyes move to the front, and in the backglow of the flashlight, he could see Tifa behind him.
Cissnei walked closer to the coffin. "Vincent? Are you in here?"
Slowly, almost imperceptibly, the lid moved, and then slid across to the side of the room as though floated there by some unseen force. He heard Tifa and Aerith both draw a breath as the flashlight beam revealed the form of a man in a black jumpsuit and a red cloak, with a golden gauntlet on his right arm, blinking red eyes as though he were trying to reorient himself after being asleep for a long time. He sat up slowly, taking in the onlookers before his eyes fixed on Cissnei. "You were here before… with Veld. Why have you disturbed me again?"
"I thought, since you knew so much about what goes on in this mansion, you might know something about Hojo's last stay here. Last time we were looking for a materia, but this time, we need information."
"Hojo? If he is gone, it is no concern of mine. Leave here, and don't return. This place holds nothing but nightmares."
"You can say that again," Cloud muttered. That, in Zack's opinion, was an incredible understatement.
Vincent looked over at the glowing blue eyes belonging to Cloud, his eyebrows raised under his headband even as he squinted and Cissnei lowered the flashlight so it wasn't shining in his face. "You speak from personal experience," he observed.
Zack spoke up. "For us, it started when Sephiroth lost his mind down here when he discovered Hojo's research. After that, it only got worse."
Vincent's face hardened in greater concern. "Sephiroth?" No one could miss the recognition in his voice.
"You know him?" Cloud asked.
Vincent stood in the coffin, stretched, and then flipped in the air, landing perched on the far edge of the coffin. "You start first."
"In that case," Mao said from the rear of the group, "Freya and I will go investigate the lab. You can find us when you're done here."
"I'll go with them," Kunsel added.
As he heard the three of them walk off into the darkness, Zack swallowed hard, and then turned his attention back to Vincent. He really didn't want to have to tell this story again, especially not here, but there didn't seem to be an alternative. "You might want to make yourself comfortable," He said finally, "this could take a while…"
Okay, so for the tally of new limit breaks, this time we've got one for Freya. Kind of odd that we're only just now seeing her level one, but that's the way things went.
Blast Spread: Level One Limit Break, uses special combusting ammo for a powerful barrage across three enemies.
Tune in next time as more secrets are revealed! I can hardly wait! ^^