Bathe in the strange one's blood.

I ignored Chaos and his unexplainable hatred of Aerith. We left the labs with the files. As I turned the corner of the dusty underground hallway, I extended my arm to halt the others. There was a creature standing there, staring into my lab room. It turned to me and gurgled quietly. It had once been human, that was clear, but it was now more monster than man. From the scars on its throat, it looked like Hojo had removed the vocal cords of this creature as well. I briefly put my human hand to my own throat, wondering why mine were replaced.

"It looks like a leftover experiment. Stand back. I do not know what kind of enhancements it has."

I walked forward and unholstered my gun. The creature saw and lumbered forward at lightning speed. I unloaded a round into its forehead just as the strange claws grazed my arm. I winced at the sharp sound of nails scraping metal, and looked down at my arm. The golden gauntlet was tarnished with age. If the thick dust matting my hair wasn't enough to prove the passing of time, the state of my metal arm solidified the notion. I hid it in the folds of my cloak again.

Didn't I just say something about a bath? Get that dust out with the sweet candy blood of the strange female.

I ignored him again, leading the others safely out of the mansion. The daylight was impossibly bright. I staggered a bit on the way out the door, covering my eyes with my arm. When I squinted back into the sunlight, I saw Tifa and Aerith had continued down the road. Cloud was beside me, waiting with a strange emotion in his eyes. I vaguely recognized pity mixed with a general sense of confusion. He looked quite as lost as I believe I felt. I followed after the girls.

Cloud led us up the mountain trail. "The others in our group are Barret, Yuffie, and Red. Red was also one of Hojo's experiments. They stopped in Cosmo Canyon. We're headed to Rocket Town to meet with them. They were supposed to go around the mountain while we investigated the reactor here. Once we meet up, we'll head out on the next lead. The trail seems to go to Wutai. It's reasonable that he would go there, after all the time he spent there in the war. It's the only plan we have, though, so we need a plane or a boat to get there."

I nodded quickly. "I speak Wutaian."

"Good, so does Yuffie. That way if we split up, we'll have another translator." He went quiet for some time. It suited me just fine. My throat was starting to ache from suddenly using my long forgotten vocal cords. There were sharp pains every time I did more than breathe. I was never very social anyway.

We went right up to a large building that hadn't been there last time I trekked up the mountain. Actually, it was right on top of the place Lucretcia and I had our picnic. I felt more of the Mako spikes, and I turned to Cloud once again. I wondered what was causing this disturbance, but I couldn't say for sure that he would be able to answer. He made a beeline for the entrance of the building.

I hesitated. "What is this building?"

Tifa ran in after Cloud, leaving Aerith to answer me. "This is Mako Reactor 01. These are everywhere, dredging up Mako from the Planet." I asked her what exactly Mako was. "It's the lifeblood of the Planet. Shinra is using it as a power source, for both electricity and people. This is what they used to create SOLDIERs. It's also a powerful drug."

I heard a clanging sound from deep within the reactor, so I followed the others inside with Aerith close by. I didn't see them straight away, but had to follow the Mako spikes that were getting stronger by the second. We arrived in a room filled with pods. Steps led to a door with a faded plaque reading "Jenova".

I stepped over Cloud on my way to the door. The Jenova Project was the one Hojo had used Lucretcia in. I didn't get to read much of the notes on it, but the project was so closely interwoven with the fate of my son that just the name drew me like a magnet. I ripped open the door and inside was a large pod. The glass was shattered and the life support systems had nothing to support. Whatever Jenova was, it wasn't there anymore.

Cloud pushed past me.

"Sephiroth was here. A long time ago. We were here. Me, Sephiroth, and… and Zack." He fell to his knees, hands to his head. "Urrgh. We… we were here for a mission. We had to inspect the Reactor. The villagers said it was unstable, that the monsters in the area were mutating from the Mako. We came in here and Seph saw something in there. Saw Jenova. Said his mother's name was Jenova. He… Seph went crazy. Locked himself in the mansion. Found research notes. He was an experiment. Made from Jenova. Burnt down the village. He came here and we- Zack and I- tried to take him down. Called us traitors. Tried to kill me. I threw him into the Reactor core." He curled in on himself. "Oh Gaia, what have I done? Where's Zack? Where did they take us?" I placed my hand on his shoulder and he looked up at me with tears in his eyes. "The mansion. I was there. Zack was there. Specimen C. Specimen Z. He saved me. I… Where did he go?"

I couldn't say that I understood. It seemed like he had lost some of his memories, but that didn't explain the tears on Aerith's face, or the queasy look on Tifa's. I left it alone.

"Take some time to compose yourself. Later you will read those files and they will likely have the answers you seek." I looked up at the pod. "There are many sins Hojo must atone for. Everything he touches knows suffering, in some fashion or another." I pulled him roughly to his feet. "For the moment, there is work to be done. There are no answers hidden in this room."

He left the reactor without another word. We followed him in silence deep into the mountain. The only sounds were our footsteps and Tifa sniffling quietly. I had a thought to try to lighten her spirit, but didn't know how. I remained silent.

I took the time to inspect my gauntlet. I tried to clean it with a corner of my cloak, but none of the grime came away. I sighed, frustrated, which caused Cloud to snap his head in my direction. The sound, small as it was, had shocked him from his stupor.

He looked to my arm, curiosity barely concealed. "What happened to your arm?" I merely looked back at him wordlessly. "Ah, well, Barret has an unusual limb, too. His arm is a machine gun."

I raised an eyebrow. "A machine gun."

Cloud chucked and turned back to the path we were on. There were Mako pools every so often, and the stench of it made my eyes water. We eventually entered a large cavern. The only other opening to the cavern was on the other side of a large sleeping dragon.

Tifa cried out, and silenced her with a wave. Cloud looked at me with concern. "Have you ever fought a dragon?"

"Yes. You?"

"Yeah." He winced. "I think."

I sighed and motioned for them to wait. I thought back to the last time I faced a dragon. It had been smaller than this one, if that could be believed. I moved carefully forward, keeping my footsteps alarmingly silent against the stone floor, despite the obvious clang that metal boots should have on any hard surface. I made a mental note to get new shoes at our next stop. The golden ones I had on were impractical and a bit silly looking.

As I approached a good range, I readied my shotgun and aimed carefully. Cloud was on my right, sword out at an awkward angle. It seemed my thoughts were now prone to bouncing around, and I wondered how long he had been using that sword. I heard a small scuffle of shoes and knew the girls had taken up a position a little further away, cautious but ready. I didn't fail to notice one giant eye snap open at the little sound. I wondered if this was a nest mate of the one I felled so many years ago.

I fired straight into the beast's eye.