LatteJazz, shirimasen loon desu. Anata ka. There, I used proper grammar xD Since you pretty much threatened me in that scary voice you use when you REALLY want something (eek -don't hurt me! xD), I PROMISE I'll start posting that story I was telling you about soon, 'kay? haha Until then, please keep enjoying your random, Cloud-loving persona appearing here in this story! heehee ^.^ By the wayyy, I would've thought you'd have some comments about the last chapter to make, hmm? hahaha I mean, I know you told me some already, but, yeah, anyway moving onnnn...

ShatterTheHeavens: No insult taken at all. I was pretty much insulting myself throughout the chapter, so, yeah xD Thanks for the review!

Sayonara: HAHAHA Riiigghhhttt hahaha I do that, sometimes, though... I just think, with Zack around, I wouldn't blow up as much... That's just a theory, though. I've got Italian, German, and Irish blood in me. Not to mention Dutch, Spanish, French, and a few other things. A very volatile mix, according to my friend, right there. Short tempers are in my blood xD HAHAHA Cave of DOOOOOOOM xD You crack me up ^.^ Yesh, quite evil... Evil, evil, evil haha Yeah, I think, by now, Zack and Kiku have scarred Anna and Cloud for iife hahaha (LatteJazz may argue differently, but you never can tell ^.^)

RennyPenny: YOU, my loverly reviewer, have just made it on the list of my favorite people. I seriously teared up when I read your review :'D Thank you so much! I went running around the house telling my whole family, including my cats and dog -much to their chagrin. Not to mention all my friends on Facebook XD Yes...Kiku is just a little bit blonde sometimes xD Thank you so much! I shall make you a cookie. A big one. Like, five feet wide. Or something. Hmm...I'm gonna need a bigger oven... Anywhoo, THANK YOU SO MUCH! :D

A'ight, on with the chapter here ^.^

So you know when you're playing games (like Crisis Core), and you get a totally random item at the end of a battle (like "Coffin Keys")? And you think, "When the heck am I gonna need -in this case- the keys to a coffin in this game?" Well, Kiku and Anna wonder the same thing, so don't feel bad xD

Enjoy the chapter, all you loverly readers and reviewers! (Yes, ShatterTheHeavens, this means you! ^.^)

-Chapter 35-

Zack

The lights slowly dimmed as we went farther into the cave. Luckily, we didn't have to stay in the dark for long thanks to more lights.

"Geez, this place goes on forever," Anna said, looking around. Her voice echoed quietly off the dirt walls of the cave, replaying her comment at least four times before it faded.

"No joke," Kiku agreed, her voice echoing the same way. "It's like the black hole of caves or something. And what's with all these doors? What's behind 'em?"

"Well, seeing as how we're in an underground gave beneath Shinra Manor looking for Sephiroth...I don't wanna know," Cloud said.

"Ah, come on, man," I said, poking Cloud in the shoulder. "Where's your spirit of adventure?"

"Back up with the sunlight," he replied, discouraged.

"Well, I do want to see what's behind those doors," Kiku said. She skipped away from the group and over to one of the doors.

"What makes you think they'd actually be-"

Kiku pushed down a big handle on the door, and it swung open.

"-open...?" Cloud finished as Kiku grinned at us.

"Come on! Let's see what's in here!"

"Might as well," I said, following her.

"Uh..." Anna said. "S-Someone should stay out here... You know, in case Sephiroth comes by...?"

"Uh, yeah, we're going in," Cloud said quickly, following me.

"Huh? Whaa? " Anna cried. She sighed, annoyed, and followed us.

I guess Cloud was more afraid of Sephiroth than any monster that might've been behind those doors.

"Hmm," Kiku said, looking around.

"Well, what else did we expect to find underground?" I said.

Inside the door were two wide stone steps leading up to a stone platform. On the platform were four...coffins.

"Kiku, why did you HAVE to look in here, and why did you HAVE to find the door open? !" Anna whimpered, hiding behind Cloud.

"Curiosity got the better of me," she said, walking over to a coffin.

"Don't touch it!" Anna hissed.

"Why not?" Kiku asked. "It's not like there's anything alive in it."

"My point!" Anna shot back.

Kiku rolled her eyes and put her hands on the lid.

Cloud and Anna flinched away, taking a couple steps back.

"Oh, come on," I said, shaking my head. "Kiku's right. Whatever's in there is long dead. What are you two so worried about?"

"You ever heard of zombies, Zack?" Anna said in her "duh" way.

I rolled my eyes. "Seriously, yeesh..." I said under my breath, going over by Kiku.

She was trying to push the lid off the coffin, but it wouldn't budge. She noticed me watching her and gave me a look. "No, Zack, I don't think this coffin lid pushes in," she said dryly.

I laughed. "I wasn't even thinking that, but alright..."

She shook her head and looked back at the coffin. She ran her hand over the lid, stopping at what looked like a lock. "What the..." she said quietly. "You need a key to get into a coffin?"

Key? I wondered. Coffin?

"Why would you put a lock on a coffin...? Unless you buried something valuable with the-" She stopped short when she looked at me. Or, rather, what I was holding in my hand.

"Forgot I had this," I said.

She raised an eyebrow at me. "And just what are you doing carrying a coffin key around?"

I shrugged.

"Where'd you even get that?"

"I dunno. But let's see if it works while we're here."

She shrugged. "Okay."

I put the key in the lock. It fit. I turned the key. The lock clicked.

Kiku and I looked at each other, wide-eyed. We looked back at the coffin, and put our hands on it. Slowly and carefully, we slid back the lid.

"You guys are insane!" Anna whispered loudly.

We looked inside.

"Uh..." Kiku said. "Do you hear what I hear?"

"Is that...?"

It was. It was snoring.

"Someone's sleeping in this coffin?" she whispered.

"Looks that way," I said, my eyes wide in shock.

"Close it, quick!" Anna advised.

We slid the lid back closed, and Kiku grabbed the key out of the lock.

I held my hand out to take it back, but she shook her head. "What?" I asked. "I can't have my coffin key back?"

"Nope," she replied, grinning. "I think I'll hang onto it for a while..." She put it in her pocket, jumped down the stone steps, and walked over to Anna and Cloud, asking them if they were okay. She glanced over her shoulder at me. "If you want the key back right away, Zack, you're gonna have to search me for it..." she said in her singsong way. Then she went back to asking about Anna and Cloud's emotional and mental states.

I looked at her for a moment, suppressing a grin into a smile. She's really something else, I thought.

Then I looked back at the coffin, wondering why on earth someone was sleeping in it. Oh, well, I thought. To each his own...I guess...

"Kiku Oshiro!" Anna scolded. "You better promise never to go looking in any more coffins as long as you live, okay?"

Kiku smirked. "Yes, mother."

Anna sighed and rolled her eyes.

"So, there was seriously someone sleeping in that coffin?" Cloud asked, looking at me as I got closer.

"Yeah," I said. "Weird, huh?"

"Really weird," Cloud said, nodding.

"Well, I think we should get outta here before whoever Sleeping Beauty is wakes up," I said.

"Right," Kiku said. "I mean, for all we know, it's a vampire. Mwahahaha!" she laughed as she walked out.

The three of us looked at each other and started laughing.

"You know, I wouldn't be surprised if you turned out to be a vampire, Kiks," I said as we followed her back out into the main cave.

She laughed and looked at me. "Well, you never know. One of these days I may just sprout fangs and jump you all."

"I don't know about Cloud and Anna, but I, for one, wouldn't mind that," I said with a grin.

She grinned back (but was blushing a little). "Somehow, I knew you'd say that."

We all chuckled, the sound echoing and amplifying back at us.

;;;;;

With our tomb exploration over, we continued on through the cave, looking for anything that would show us we were on the right track. We didn't even really know what the right track was, so...we were pretty much looking for anything. Relatively speaking.

I kept wondering why exactly Sephiroth would've come down to the underground caves. What would he possibly be looking for down there? What answers could he possibly find?

Well, if Kiku -a total outsider- could find out about the experiments performed on herself simply by hacking into Shinra's mainframe (That was simple? !), and knew that she could find information there, then Sephiroth -a SOLDIER 1st Class- probably knew better places to find information about himself, like the caves beneath Shinra Manor.

Finally, finally, we reached the end of the tunnel. And found yet another door.

Anna approached it first, looking at a sign next to the door. She brushed away some dirt with her hand, squinting at the piece of metal. "Shinra Manor Basement Facilities," she read. She shrugged. "We came all this way, so we might as well go inside."

I felt a chill go up my spine, and I knew it wasn't because of the dank atmosphere of the cave.

"You okay, Zack?" Cloud asked.

"I'm fine," I said. I cleared my throat. "I...I think I should go on by myself." I glanced at Kiku, waiting for a reaction. And I knew she was going to have one.

Kiku put her hands on her hips and gave me a look. "Are we going to go through that again?"

"I mean it, Kiku."

"You always mean it," she said, her voice quiet. She nodded. "But I understand."

"I mean...you aren't in uniform. And someone has to stay behind to watch out for you and Anna," I said, glancing sideways at Cloud.

Cloud started. "Huh? ! Me?"

"Yes, you," I said, smiling. "You are a Shinra infantryman, are you not?"

"Well, yeah, but-"

"So are you just going to leave these two defenseless girls here, wide open for a monster attack?"

"HEY!" Kiku and Anna snapped in unison.

I laughed. "Just kidding. But, really, Cloud," I said, "I have a feeling Sephiroth's on the other side of that door, and I know how to handle him. At least, I think I do. Anyway, I think it'd just be best if you three stay here. Okay?"

"Yeah, yeah," Anna said, rolling her eyes. "The SOLDIER 1st Class knows best."

I smirked. "So you'll be okay?"

"We'll be fine," Kiku said, smiling.

I gave her a look. "Kiks, no more opening coffins."

She snapped her fingers. "Darn it..."

I laughed. "Okay. I'll be back. Hopefully, with Sephiroth." I turned and put my hand on the door, cranking down on the metal handle. The door swung out, revealing -what looked like- a dark hallway that led to another door.

I took a deep breath and exhaled. Come on, Zack, I told myself. It's just Sephiroth.

HA! Who am I kidding? Sephiroth could squash me like a bug.

I turned back and looked at Kiku.

She blinked at me, her head tilted in confusion.

I blinked at her for a moment. Then I quickly crossed over to her, put my arms around her, and pressed my lips to hers.

I could feel that she was surprised. In fact, she still looked surprised when I pulled back. She just looked at me, her blue-green eyes wide.

I smiled, then turned back to the dark hallway.

Okay, I thought. Now I can handle Sephiroth.

Kiku

Well, what were we supposed to do while we waited in the cave for Zack? Sit on the ground and twiddle our thumbs? I don't think so. Besides, I still had the coffin key, didn't I?

Anna and Cloud refused to come with me, and stayed near the entrance. I was fine with that. I figured it would give them a chance to talk. Maybe Cloud would finally say something to her, you never know. I mean, not that that cave was the...ideal place to profess your love, but...

Anyway, my coffin-searching wasn't all that interesting. Most of them were empty, or whatever had been inside had almost turned to dust. I had been expecting something a little more exciting, like a body buried with jewels, or a note in a pocket that revealed the answer to some mystery or something...

I think I'd read too many detective stories or something, to think that anything like that might happen. I mean, what was I thinking?

Why are there even coffins down here? I wondered. Doesn't everyone return to the LIfestream when they die? What's the purpose of coffins if there are never any bodies to bury?

The infitie amount of unanswered questions about our fair (no pun intended) planet continued to astound me. Daily.

Zack

I walked down the short hallway and stopped at a wooden door. It looked just like any wooden door you'd find in an average house, which I thought was a little strange. This was supposed to be the basement facilities, right? Anyway, I opened the door.

The room on the other side looked something like a library. It was so filled with shelves of books that there was barely room to walk between them. All kinds of books were set on the shelves: fiction, non-fiction, science fiction, romance... Then there was -I guess what you'd call- a "reference" section. Some looked like hand-written journals.

That's where I found Sephiroth. He was pacing in front of a desk in the middle of the "library", book in hand. He was murmuring to himself as he read.

"A life form in a state of suspended animation, excavated from a 2,000-year-old stratum," he read. "Professor Gast named this life form Jenova..." He turned a page. "Date: X/X/XX - Jenova verified as Ancient..." He turned another page. "Date: X/X/XX - Jenova Project approved. Mako Reactor 1 authorized for use."

He turned and walked over to the desk, looking at the wall in front of him now. "My mother's name, Jenova... The Jenova Project... Could this be a coincidence?" he wondered aloud, turning back to the book. He flipped a few more pages, searching for answers he so desperately needed.

Then he stopped and hung his head a little. "Professor Gast... Why didn't you tell me? Why...did you die?"

I wondered why Sephiroth hadn't acknowledged me or said anything to me, even though I was sure he'd noticed me standing there. Maybe he was just so caught up in his own thoughts that he hadn't seen me.

I took a couple steps forward. "Sephiro-"

"I would like to be alone," he cut in, his voice colder than the cave I'd just walked out of.

I sighed, almost glaring at him. "Fine, then," I said simply, quietly. And I turned and walked out of the library.

I wondered why I didn't stay, ask him what he'd found out...ask if I could help. Maybe I thought that Sephiroth could figure it out for himself, and it really was best to just leave him alone. At any rate, I didn't want to get him angry.

I walked back down the hallway, and opened the door to the cave.

Cloud and Anna were standing near the door still, and looked at me when I walked out. But...where was Kiku?

I got my answer when a familiar pair of blue-green eyes peeked out at me from inside a door farther up the cave.

"What's the little cave creature doing?" I asked Cloud and Anna, laughing a little.

"Oh, just doing exactly what you told her not to," Anna said nonchalantly.

"Tattle-tale!" Kiku hissed, her voice carrying down the cave to us.

Anna stuck her tongue out at her and laughed.

Kiku stepped out of the room she'd been in and shuffled over to us. "Not like I was grave-robbing or anything..."

I put my fist on my hips, pretending to be angry with her. "I thought I told you not to open any more coffins."

"Curiosity got the better of me," she said simply. "And boredom."

I couldn't have been gone five minutes, I thought. She must have as short an attention span as me.

"Please don't be mad at me...?" She looked up at me, her eyes wide, pleading, and her lower lip jutted out a little in a pout.

I tried to keep up the facade that I was "angry with her," but I just couldn't. I sighed. "Oh, alright, I forgive you. Just turn off the puppy-dog pout."

"Yes!" she said, pumping her fist in the air.

I laughed. "By the way, I'm going to be needing that coffin key back." I held my hand out. "So hand it over."

She folded her arms over her chest and raised an eyebrow. "Don't you remember what I said before?" She grinned a little when I felt my face flush slightly. "That's what I thought. Sooo...? How badly do you want it back?"

I cleared my throat. Kiku, I thought at her. Not...here.

She looked at me for a moment, then sighed, dropping her arms to her side. "Fine. It's in my pocket. Now you don't have to 'search me'," she said, making air quotes. She dropped her arms again, her hands slapping her thighs. "You happy now?"

I laughed softly and stepped closer. I reached my hand into her pants pocket, and closed my fingers around the key. I looked at her as I took it back.

I couldn't read the expression on her face, but her cheeks were slightly flushed.

I smiled. You asked for it, I thought at her.

When she blushed even more, I knew she'd heard me.

"Thanks," I said.

She looked away and mumbled something like a "You're welcome."

I smiled. "Come on, let's get back up to the light of day." I grabbed her and swung her around my back.

She yelped and grabbed on quickly with her arms and legs, just like she had a couple nights before. "Stop doing that!" she scolded as she tried to catch her breath, her nervousness and embarrassment quickly forgotten.

"Sorry," I said, smirking.

She grinned back and kissed me on the cheek. "Okay, let's go."

Anna and Cloud fell into step next to me, and we started heading back towards the ladder.

"Did you find Sephiroth?" Cloud asked quietly.

"Mm-hmm," I said.

"What was he doing?" Anna asked.

"Well, there's like a whole library down there. He was looking through old files and journals and things... Something about Jenova and a professor named Gast..." I shook my head. "I don't know. But, at any rate, he said he wanted to be alone, so that's just how we're going to leave him."

"For how long?" Kiku asked.

I shrugged. "As long as it takes, I guess." I sighed. "As long as it takes."

Kiku

We made it back to the ladder and proceeded to climb back up it.

I went first, then Cloud came up after me. When Anna came up, Cloud helped her off the ladder again.

I had to smile again. Seriously, I thought, something needs to happen here.

When Zack came up, we went over to the exit door, and climbed back up the stone stairwell into Shinra Manor. And then we left Shinra Manor and went back into town. Simple as that.

I wonder how long Sephiroth is going to stay down there, I thought as we walked along the trail back to town. How long can he stay down there? I'm not really sure what he's looking for, but how does he know the answer is in that library? What if it's somewhere else altogether? Will he just keep searching and searching until he finds it?

More importantly, if he does find the answer...how will he react to it?

LatteJazz, you may have noticed that I made a teeny-tiny reference to that plot bunny we were talking about :)

Okay, so what'd you all think? Let me know! Thanks again to everyone for the reviews! :D