There was no rhyme or reason to the architecture; the place, which eventually spread over six acres, was more akin to outright chaos. There were secret passages, stairs and doorways that went nowhere, and rooms built with strange angles. Many rooms had thirteen windows with thirteen panes of glass or thirteen lights. The massive four-story building contained one hundred and sixty rooms, several towers and cupolas, numerous chimneys, three elevators, over two thousand doors, more than one thousand windows, two ballrooms, dozens of corridors, several upside down newel posts, and forty separate staircases (one of them with stairs only two inches high). In other words, it was a maze designed to confuse those spirits that might try to cause harm.
Cloud stepped out of the rusty elevator on the top floor. Heat and moisture hit his face as the doors opened and the stench of death was chokingly thick. He had followed the cat deeper into the house – this time. He heard the soft meowing from the room on the other side of the long hall, which was lined with windows covered in condensed water. Cloud took a step and felt he had no grip. The floor was covered with red mist, making the polished stone floor slippery and organic as if he stepped on scattered hide and remains. The hall was flanked with mould-covered statues of praying Angels. They followed Cloud's every step along to the silent hall, their necks cracking like ground bones as they turned their heads. Cloud felt a shiver run down his spine and held the flashlight tightly in his hands. The house had been abandoned for a long time and winds were whistling through every tiny crevice in the walls, under the doors and through broken windows. Everywhere was cold and dark, eerie whispers and phantoms of the mind tainting his sanity and slithering into his imaginative mind.
He had advanced through numerous halls already, ambling over squeaking floorboards and battled dancing curtains that were coiling around him as the draft brought the thin fabric to life. He had a distinct feeling of being watched, hungry eyes following his trail like predators on prowl. He felt their teeth already feasting on his insides and his mind slowly surrendered to fear. Cloud swallowed and desperately tried to pull out every logical explanation he could come up with in order to dampen the fear slowly building up in this spine-chilling environment. He called out for the silvery cat and internally cursed the feline for running off the way it had done. Why into this house? How could he find this place, for not even Cloud who had lived in these areas had ever seen it before. Embedded in the depth of the Silver forest outside the Forgotten City, it had been hidden from the world.
A weak sound from Greybone pierced the silence. It was coming from ahead; from behind that blue door, a magnificent door, a wide gate opening into blue darkness out of which the unmistakable odor of death was oozing. Cloud felt like turning around and begged his own mind to wake up from the dream, but this was not a dream. Greybone had tuned in on his master and kept on calling with a desperate plea, one that Cloud could not deny. Cloud spoke Greybone's name and noticed his breath formed a mist of white crystal around his face. He held the flashlight in front of him, but it seemed though as if the obscurity in the vast room consumed the light, for nothing returned even the slightest reflection from his surroundings. Greybone was calling, his apprehension eating into Cloud yet forcing him to obey.
Swallowing hard, heart pounding wildly in his chest and with mind washed over by fear, Cloud stepped into the black chamber. Each step was echoing on and on as if he had entered a cave, and he had difficulty measuring up the vast space around him. Before his eyes had the chance to acclimate to the darkness, the grand portal behind him slammed shut and intense dread erupted from within. The young man swiftly turned around and tried to open the door, but there was nothing to reach for. There were no walls, no gate, no handles… nothing. There was nothing that his palms could identify.
At first, he could only hear the violent beating of his own heart, the breeze of his breath like sharp whispers in his ears, and the muscles trembling in a cramp. But slowly the hammering sank in intensity, the winds quieted and allowed something else to emerge. There was something pulsating through the blackness. He could feel the hair on the back of his neck reacting to the ghostly presence observing him. Stillness was soon replaced by the echoes from the great beyond. Cloud started shivering as raspy sounds from behind him grew stronger and something cold began dripping at first, then trickling down his collar. It was cold, wet and thick and instinctively the blond searched for answers by directing the flashlight towards the ceiling. What he saw plunged him straight into the grip of despair.
It wasn't just the dead bodies chained to the walls and ceiling that got his attention, but also the living ones, who were only barely alive. They were all Angels, all silver… all Sephiroth. And Cloud began weeping silently; mortal dread washing over his face as he kept on whispering Greybone's name.
Most of the victims had been severely maimed by medical experiments. Some were even strapped to tables, whilst others were kept in chambers of embalming liquid. Though tubes were pressed down in swollen throats, the trembling eyelids clearly showed the tortured Soldiers were alive. Alive! Cloud vomited in violent cramps but tried to remain focused. His hands were trembling, but he held on to the light as if it was his only source of sanity. Slowly, he walked up to one man on a surgical table that had been surgically transformed into a genderless creature, face covered with makeup that looked as if it had been applied by a child. The young man was panting rapidly like an exhausted dog and Cloud was overwhelmed by pity and disgust. He made an attempt to touch the sweaty, trembling body, but he couldn't swallow his fear and thus backed away.
Another Soldier close by looked like a human crab; arm and leg bones had been broken and reset into odd angles, and he was kept in a small cage. In this tremendous agony, the man had tried to chew his way out of the confined cage, but he only ended up slashing his face, destroying the teeth and now gaping with despair. Yet another had arms and legs amputated and his skin was peeled off in an odd sort of spiral pattern. Scattered around the vast floor were pails full of body parts, organs, and severed heads. Among those who had died were males whose faces had been grotesquely disfigured.
Cloud sunk to the ground crying with abandonment. The notion of Sephiroth's suffering was slowly beginning to merge with his consciousness. Strength had failed the blond but he kept on struggling to escape the nightmare with the remains of his sanity before it all ebbed out into the preponderating madness that was taking him over. It was creeping onto him like a parasite and the blond made an attempt to move, but his body was unresponsive. The victims all started creaking, moaning, panting and snarling with inhuman sounds of misery as if they mocked his feebleness. Their voices were like splinters in Cloud's brain, eating him slowly from within. Then it all stopped and the darknkess became absolute stillness. Nothing could be heard, nothing could be discerned. After a short while Cloud made an effort to move. He fumbled for the flickering flashlight, almost dying in his hands, and tapped it against his palms until the light turned steady; too little too late.
A powerful shriek pierced his skull and the light was swallowed by the gaping mouth of the crab-like, butchered twin of Sephiroth. It scurried with great effort out of its cage to take up the chase, unleashing a surge of panic within Cloud that awakened his limbs and carried him across the room. Each movement the crab made generated sounds of cracking bone that filled Cloud's vicinity. He shut his ears to the ghostly whispers begging for help and mercy, and just made his way through the darkness. He collided with body after body hung from the ceiling, stumbled over remains and maimed victims that were barely alive; some reaching after him, some begging for release, to hold back, to end the misery and to end the suffering. But Cloud continued running. He screwed his eyes shut and with ears overwhelmed by his own screams of denial he suddenly stumbled into another room.
Bright light blinded Cloud and forced him to shut his eyes as he fell. He didn't know where he was falling, but he was plunging freely through the air. The tingling sensations in his stomach were pressing his angst high up in his throat and he was still falling. Suddenly, his fall was caught, and his body just kept on soaring, levitating. Slowly the blond dared to open his eyes and found himself wrapped in veils that swayed and moved around him like gently beating wings. Cloud was in a white space and beneath him was a pedestal upon which he landed. The delicate fabric around his body moved to the gentle breeze brushing against him and for a moment he wasn't sure if it was a part of his body or just a piece of clothing.
Cloud looked around, but apart from the brightness there was nothing to be seen and just as the thought of where to go from here pierced his mind, a vine of black roses began coiling up the pedestal, reaching towards the skies. The vine bore enchantingly beautiful roses, just budding and ready to burst into splendor of fragrance and magnificence. But the budding was painful. With every bud that burst into bloom, blood dripped off the velvet petals, soiling the marble pedestal with horrific visions of massacre. The vine moved and intertwined with branches and leaves, forming a narrow, perilous staircase, Cloud's only way down from the heavens. Triangular thorns with the sharpness of Masamune were slashing his feet with each step he took. Cloud was in pain and his feet were bleeding profusely, but something had changed from within. The arrow of compassion and forgiveness he felt towards the tortured bodies, and the tears he shed, emptied him of that immobilizing fear that kept him from moving on. His mind was drained of self-pity and guilt, and he bravely called the name into the darkness way beneath him.
"Kadaj!" Cloud shouted.
At first his voice was muted by the thick air around him, but it later grew into a strong echo that was coming from a distance. For once, Cloud didn't try to fight what was happening, but allowed the ghostly world of a twisted mind to carry its message.
"I have come to take you home, where you belong!"
As the blond reached the edge of the darkness he noticed it was merely water, but so deep that it seemed to have no bottom. The water was cold and placid, and fearful images of what might lie underneath the surface tainted his mind. Cloud hesitated for a swift moment, staring into the glossy surface. Through a swift shimmer on the plane, the blond noticed the visions of his hidden desire, the screen behind the mirror, revealing a treasure on the bottom of the deep well; Kadaj. He was lying there in chains, waiting. In a flutter of a second, Cloud had made up his mind. He took a dive into his fantasy and allowed the icy water to pull him down to the muddy bottom. The descent took what seemed like ages. His lungs were aching and panic was rooting knowing he couldn't hold his breath much longer, but instead of listening to his deepest instincts he fought his own fear of death and remained in the cold darkness. He picked up the decaying corpse of Kadaj and held him tightly in the arms. The chains around that juvenile body were so heavy that it kept them both anchored to the mud.
Fighting to hold his breath, heart hammering like a drum against his ribcage, Cloud began rocking Kadaj refusing to let go. In demonstrative obstinacy he exhaled the last lingering breath from his lungs and repeated over and over; "I'm not letting you go… Kadaj, I'm not letting you go again…"
Just as the cramping muscles prepared to take in a breath full of icy water, the chains around Kadaj burst and a powerful pulse pushed the bodies to rise from the depth of the lake.
Cloud broke the surface to the lake, audibly sucking in the crisp, clear air into his famished chest. The pain was indescribable as every little corner of his collapsed lung inflated once again to spread life into his numb limbs. Cloud swam to the shore, pulling Kadaj along with a struggle for life, and as he reached shallow ground he collected the young man into his arms and carried him to safety. Cloud staggered away from the water and placed the body carefully on the ground. He smiled and rejoiced that the nightmares were finally over.
Kadaj was lying motionlessly on the ground but he was breathing. Cloud could see those deep, healthy breaths inside that pale chest and the veins on the neck pulsating with soothing heartbeats. Kadaj was naked and cold, but seemingly in good health, not carrying any signs of the torment he had escaped from.
The young blond lifted his head and noticed Fenrir parked under a blossoming tree. It was an odd sight, for nothing in this forest bloomed anymore. However, the branches of this tree were heavy with flowers that now covered the seat of the bike.
Cloud carried the still, unconscious man to Fenrir, wrapping his body in a blanket and positioning him on the seat to be able to ride off into safety. The morning sun was just rising beyond the horizon, and Midgar was coming alive from its dormant state.