The Shinra Mansion
Yuffie made herself the leader, skipping ahead while cheering, "All right! Time to go treasure hunting!"
She spun to show me and Aerith her sparkling eyes.
"Do you think there's Materia or awesome treasure? Like money? I bet there are vaults or secret compartments," she gushed. The three of us climbed the many stairs away from the heart of Nibelheim, and into the mountain, where the mansion waited for us.
"I can't say. It sounds like it has been neglected for a while. It may have already been stripped to the core. Nothing left," Aerith wondered.
I wished the rain had lightened up as I tightened my cloak around my arms and hid my face even deeper inside my hood. Cold swept up into my leather boots, numbing my toes. I stopped, letting Aerith and Yuffie go on ahead when I caught a quick glimpse at Claudia's new grave slightly hidden behind a few peaked rocks.
Cloud's Buster sword was barely noticeable, like a small statue that was stuck in mud.
I thought he would be there.
With my imagination, his ghost appeared, kneeling before his mother's stone, hands onto his sword like a squire about to be knighted. Head bowed with secretive words escaping his lips, to tell his mother what made his eyes glow so marvelously.
Suddenly, Yuffie screeched, "A vampire!"
I ran to see what all the commotion was about, passing a petrified Yuffie with one fist under her chin, and teeth clenched. She had her shaky finger pointed down at a cloaked figure crawling in the mud.
"Yuffie, that's not a vampire. Can't you see he's injured," Aerith scowled, kneeling to help the cloaked stranger onto his feet. I held still as I stared down at the disturbing man or creature. Every time he reached forward, his white arms glowed under his tethered black sleeves, a hood hiding his hairless head. Long finger nails dug into the mud, pulling his weak body across it to get him closer into the mountain, dragging his feet.
"Must go… must go… need to go… go…" he hissed in a raspy voice.
Thoughts instantly went to Gold Saucer, where Cloud and I discovered a very similar encounter. What was going on?
The cloaked stranger disregarded Aerith, even when she tried to pull him up, taking his elbow. He pulled it back, his grey eyes distant like he was lost, unaware of what was going on around him while instinct kept him going.
"Must go….go…."
"Cloud and I saw one of these in Gold Saucer," I shared, falling to my knees to take his muddy white hand into mine. Open sores swelled along his palm and fingers, ice-cold to the touch. I flipped it over, and found a Roman numeral tattoo in black ink across the back of his hand.
"Eight," I read aloud.
He inhaled shallow breaths with great effort, wheezing as though it was painful, and didn't even acknowledge my existence.
"Must go….need to go…. go…" he wheezed, pulling his hand away just so he could crawl again, spreading the mud around in between his fingers and into his hideous nails. I watched the figure with hard eyes, his weak body struggling away from the mansion as though that was where he once dwelled.
"Must go to…reunion… To reunion…" the figure moaned. He then stopped, and unexpectedly, choked.
We all held still, watching as a large breath released, and his belly sank into the wet earth. He didn't move.
Aerith gasped while I walked to him, and checked a pulse along his white neck. Nothing.
"He's gone," I muttered, finding his pale eyes wide open and frozen in time.
Yuffie inched up next to me, wild eyes at the dead, cloaked figure.
"What in the world? A monster from the mansion?" she asked, horrified.
We all turned our heads to the gate that glistened under a flickering lamp post, broken from many years ago. In between the ruptured gate, there was a long stretch of dragging across mud in between a landscape of overgrowth.
"It seems like it," I observed, eying the layout.
Aerith shivered in her white hood.
"Reunion? Did he mean the same one Hojo mentioned? The party?" She asked me. I blinked, recalling Hojo's cackling over my weak joke. I went back even further, remembering Sephiroth's hand on my face, whispering something about a "reunion."
For Mother.
"Maybe that's where the cloaked figure was going. Funny. The other one Cloud and I found was mentioning something about a Black Materia. Aerith, have you heard of it or read about it in one of the Elders' journals?"
"Materia?" Yuffie gasped excitedly. Aerith ran a finger under her chin, her eyes questionable.
"I can't say I have. No. I haven't," she replied with disappointment. She took one last look at the new corpse at our feet.
"Strange," she breathed, and blew warm air into her hands, her breath visible outside her tight ball of fingers. I gave one more scan at the figure, and made a mental note to tell Cloud. Just the thought of encountering him again was gut-wrenching.
"Well, this guest ain't going to that party," Yuffie spat, and disregarded the body like it was nothing now. All three pairs of our eyes scanned the entire mansion and its expanded front yard. Grey walls of Mt. Nibel towered behind it, giving the property privacy to its rear. The whole place suddenly appeared very unwelcoming and falling apart.
The tall iron fence surrounding it, was bent in many places, possibly by creatures that escaped or entered, maybe both. Tall weeds stood, overgrown, across the neglected yard mixed with gravel. Surviving the Mako reactor in the far mountains, vines had grown and scattered across half the mansion's exterior, an overgrowth of brittle green overlaying fading brick. Some windows were broken, possibly from kids tossing rocks into them. Others boarded up. Shutters hung loosely. Nothing but darkness laid behind the windows still left intact.
I gripped Aerith's arm. Yuffie clung to her other, and we all squeezed together while the haunted looking mansion threatened us with its negligence.
"Are you sure we should be going in?" Aerith squeaked. .
"There's probably just monsters. We've dealt with them before. It's not like there are ghosts or anything," I tried to convince, more to myself just so that I would calm my heart down.
"There's no such thing as ghosts, right?" I added, though I wondered if that wasn't the case in this world. I could be wrong.
Yuffie let go of Aerith and took one of her orange sneakers forward.
"I'm going in. If there's treasure, I want to find it," she declared, and charged through the broken gate. Aerith and I followed a few steps behind, still clinging to each other. The double doors to the mansion were broken as well, cut into four pieces by a sharp object. Did Sephiroth do this five years ago? No one has thought to move the damage since? Why was Nibelheim rebuilt but the Shinra mansion left to perish? It was a landmark left for Time to shrivel it away. Let it be someone else's problem. I would've bought it and revived the whole thing. Hell, it probably wasn't even owned anymore. Someone could easily fix it up and call it their new home. Did the town's people really want to leave it? Was it out of respect? Or was it out of fear?
Our footsteps creaked across a moldy rug, finally away from the rain. The main two-story hall was expansive and could've been beautiful if it weren't for the layer of dust and grime. A chandelier hung over our heads, its diamonds picked at, so it was nothing more than iron bones and broken bulbs.
The entire place creaked, rain smothering other sounds that may have occurred, and my ears increased their sensitivity.
Water dripped through leaks and holes. Mice squeaked and scattered away from our intrusion. Bats screeched, a large group of them flapping large dark wings over us when they disappeared into the roof. It was gloomy, no source of light to guide us except for the distant street lamps outside. Aerith turned on her flashlight, and threw around a glowing yellow ball all up on the walls and across the floor.
"Looks like no one's been in here for a long time," she commented.
I awed over the interior, the tall ceiling highly detailed with fine 3D embossed patterns of vines and flowers. I imagined it white and shimmery above the chandelier, instead of caked in black mold and with cracks.
It felt intrusive to enter, like I was prowling into someone's memories. Cloud's memories? He was here, five years ago. The thought dawned on me as I tried to imagine what it was like for him, standing here, searching for Sephiroth.
Aerith laid her fingers over the stair's rail, only to have a dusty hand. She and I were handling our entry with caution, respecting the dying house. But Yuffie…
"Oh man, what a dump!" she snorted, and ran into a room, knocking over a broken shelf carelessly that was in her way. Glass shattered.
Aerith ran after her.
"Yuffie, don't make so much noise!"
I wanted to take my time walking through such a place, like I was traveling through the past, trying to decipher what the paintings meant, or who was in that faded photo hanging crookedly on a wall? My boot cracked over something. I gasped, pulled out my flashlight, and shown it at my feet. Behind broken shards of glass, I stared at a sepia photo of a large group. Carefully, I picked it up, slipping it out of its heavy frame and glass pieces. Sparkling eyes of a dozen people in lab coats stared at me.
They were all close together, posing in front of this very mansion. The fence was straight and in order, not a vine nor tall blade of weed to be seen. For what it used to be, the mansion appeared like an old English style home, a fresh start for these people. There were a few beautiful and sharp looking women in white lab coats, a gorgeous man in a dark suit with dark hair, and the rest, male scientists out numbering them all.
I struck my chest with a hand when I bore my widened eyes on one particular fellow in the photo.
Dr. Hojo.
Even back then, he still had long black hair, but his face was at least younger. However, even then, he had that sleazy "I know everything" smile, one that made you want to slap him. But what seemed out of character, was that he laid a hand over a beautiful woman's shoulder, her bangs long over her left eye. Was she someone to him? Did Hojo have feelings for this woman? Something about her beauty, the way her hair fell across her oval face, with serious eyes looking right at me like she had so much to tell and too little time to share. She seemed familiar, and yet I've never seen her before.
Through Cloud's story, I remembered him mentioning Hojo conducting experiments at Mt. Nibel's reactor. This mansion must've been his home base, along with his research team. Did all these people really turn humans into monsters? With disgust, I was about to rip the photo in my hands, but I stopped, letting it bend instead. I looked at it again, reminding myself that I was holding a piece of history. There was hope in these scientists' eyes, good intentions and ideas. Whatever happened, must've been unexpected. Instead of ripping it, I folded the large 9x12 photo four times instead, and tucked it into my belt's pouch for safe keeping.
Brushing through cobwebs, I entered a study and surveyed desks littered with old books and test tubes. Stacks of petri dishes stood tall along one end. Books of genetics, bioengineering, and medical journals collecting dust inside a tall stack of shelves. Someone ransacked the metal drawers, folders pulled out and scattered all over the floor carelessly. Some books had been pulled off the shelves, left to split open with fading pages open to the ceiling. I tried to read the words, but didn't understand what they meant. My fingers glossed over the pages, feeling the dry paper bend easily. This used to be someone's study, a place to work and look at specimens under a microscope. There was still a slide under one of the lenses, but either there was no power, or the microscope didn't work when I flicked its switch a few times.
Footsteps creaked into the room, and I gasped, jolting up to gladly find Aerith entering. She gave me a careful stare, her eyes large. Her long pink dress under her dripping cloak was slightly dirty, probably from bumping into old furniture or brushed against doorways.
"Aqua, will you please tell me now what happened?" she asked quietly, her hand playing with the old microscope's knob. She was worried about me, her eyes falling to the open books, pretending I was one, and planted a hand to its page to read it. But with the words smudged, she couldn't read it, like me when I kept quiet.
I looked to a chair, wanting to sit down and talk, but flinched from its filth and fluff on it, deciding to remain standing instead. In need of a distraction, I went to the corner windows of the room, and opened the torn curtains away from nailed up boards just to pretend there was sunshine and green grass to see.
"Oh Aerith. I'm so confused," I began, unsure if I was ready to tell her. She remained quiet, studying me while I clung onto the filthy curtain like it was an angel's hand.
I told her what happened. From Cloud storming into his old home, threatening a stranger, all the way to Tifa clinging to him, begging him to soothe her pain.
By the time I was done, Aerith had a hand to her heart, and her cheeks were wet with tears.
"Aqua…I…" She suddenly hugged me, sniffing and shaking her head smoothly over my shoulder, her body warm against mine.
"I'm sorry you went through all that," she whispered, stroking my partially wet hair.
I sank further into her, smelling rain and old memories of Kalm.
"Do you think I'm an idiot?" I cracked, taking a hand across my eyes.
Aerith rubbed her hands up and down my back.
"Yes" she replied through a smile. "You're in love. That turns all of us into idiots. It's what it does to you. You fall in love, even when signs are telling you that you shouldn't. Even when you two are from different worlds, and you're so afraid, you still love him with all of your heart anyway. Because you don't know when you won't see him ever again."
Her hands stopped, and began to claw into the sturdy fabric, digging into me.
"It hurts when they go away, but then you learn that it was worth it. No regrets," she finished.
Aerith's strong words sounded like they came from within, retelling her own experiences. She had her first love, but he died.
"Your first love. What was that like?" I suddenly asked, wondering how much she would share of her own past. Aerith's hold disappeared, her hands pulled back, and she turned away while she put up a sad smile.
"It made me an idiot for a minute," she tried to joke, but her eyes still overflowed with blobs of tears ready to drop.
Aerith left the room quietly, and I followed, her flashlight guiding us down a narrow hallway. More paintings of landscapes. I recognized Cosmo Canyon's red rocky terrain when I passed its painting, and walked with Aerith into what may have been a private bedroom for two.
Two small twin beds sat, the comforters still made, and the pillows fluffed and frozen. Only dust and the smell of decay remained. Something caught Aerith's eye, and she leaned into a night stand. Under a broken lamp, a little wooden box sat.
"I was used to being alone for a long time. But then, one day, he came into my life, falling from the sky," she continued. And then there was a warm giggle.
"Like what you and Cloud did," she added.
I smiled, watching her hand brush dust off the wooden box. It could've been a jewelry box, a medicine box or for someone's glasses.
"What, he literally just fell from the sky and landed in your church, too?" I asked, baffled that the same event could happen twice.
"Yeah," Aerith giggled, giving me a smile that could only have been brought by going back to a wonderful time in her life.
"Wow, what's with everybody falling into your church? They need to put a caution sign up on that plate or something," I joked, and we both laughed for a moment. Our soft laughter traveled across the dark room and into the halls, giving new life to a place that may have never heard it before. All the dark creatures that wandered freely, started hiding away under beds or in dark places, the laughter interfering with their night prowling.
The laughing died down, and Aerith flipped open the box.
Tiny metal string music played. It was a music box, probably to put a scientist to sleep, someone who may have missed home. The melody was a little depressing as Aerith left it alone, smiling to the tune. She sniffed as she continued, "He came to my church all the time, just to talk. He always loved to talk. And I listened, for hours. I could listen forever if I could."
She bit her lip, and two large tears glopped down her cheeks. With another sniff, she cradled her hands around her arms, holding herself tight.
"But then, one day, he left, and…never came back," Aerith choked.
I held her, letting her breathe deeply as she closed her eyes, her hair smudged on my face. The music box continued, but it slowed down, the winded up motor running dry.
I closed my eyes, smiling into her hair.
"He must've been pretty wonderful to make you an idiot," I warmed.
Aerith snorted a giggle in between her sniffles.
"Yeah, he was."
She unleashed her arms from herself, wrapped them around my waist, and held on tight.
"Let Cloud figure things out with Tifa. If that is what he wants, then you need to give him space until he knows for sure where you both stand," she advised sadly.
My eyes squeezed a little tighter.
"I know. It hurts but, with time, I will be fine. Someday, we'll all look back on this and just laugh, thinking how silly we all were, all the drama and fights we've all had," I promised. Aerith was deathly quiet, like she didn't hear me, but then she squeezed, telling me she heard.
"I really thought there was something there, between us," I chuckled, smiling like Cloud did when he told me how he had hoped his mother was still alive. I had hoped he and I were something, but, false hope was a cruel thing. A lie.
He got his longtime wish. Tifa needing him for the first time, to fall into his arms and begging him to stay with her. I wonder how he felt when it all happened. It seemed to fall into place so quickly. Right before he and I had something, Tifa threw down her hand, a clean karate chop in between us. And why wouldn't she? She knew he and I were growing closer, almost to a place where I wanted to be, and with perfect timing on her end, put a halt to it.
To give her a chance.
What right did I have to take that away? Cloud can make his own choices. If he chooses Tifa, than that's how it is. I was the "almost" girl. The "cougar" that almost had a bite of her young prey.
I've already had my chance at love, and that was with Isaac. I needed to live with that.
The music box stopped playing, and the air stiffened in an overcast of silence. Aerith's flashlight ended up on the bed, throwing off a glow across the dusty quilt and over an empty leather armchair in the corner of the room. Dust speckled over the light's beam, like tiny snow.
I opened my eyes to watch it, frozen in time with the old mansion, almost trapped in its bubbled world of forgotten dreams and memories. We were the only two souls in it, Aerith and I.
"Guys, look look look! Come here, look!" Yuffie screamed from far away.
Her voice came crashing down like someone dropped a chandelier on us, breaking Aerith and I apart. I had almost forgotten Yuffie was here, and wrecking havoc.
Aerith loosened her hold, sniffing and smiling up at me, despite being interrupted.
"I hope you feel better," she sniffed, rubbing at her eyes.
"I do. Thank you," I mentioned, pulling back my hair. We hovered for another minute, collecting ourselves, when Yuffie screamed again with impatience, "Guys! Come on, look at what I've found!"
Aerith rolled her eyes at me. "We better go see what it is," and she left the room.
"It better not be a dead body," I hoped, following her. We traced Yuffie's voice all the way up the stairs and into a backroom behind another room. It was a large study, with a lovely dusty desk to the very back.
Yuffie had her ear up against a large safe, just as big as she was, like a stand-up coffin. It looked to be sturdy, with many scratches and dinks to it, as though someone had already tried to pry it open or whacked at it at least.
"A safe?" Aerith wondered, cocking her head.
Yuffie put a finger to her lips to keep us quiet, and she got to work on the knob again while she pressed an ear to it and shined a flashlight to the numbers.
"I'm excellent at cracking safes," she revealed, smirking. For such a large safe, it made me wonder what could be inside it. I partially worried there would be a body in there. Yuffie might've been picturing stacks of Gil or Materia.
Aerith took a trembling step back, guarding herself, while Yuffie held her breath. Her long fingers spun the large knob carefully, her eyes glaring at it like she was trying to find traces of patterns. Half her tongue stuck out, wedged between her lips tightly while she concentrated.
"Wait for it," she droned, humming slightly like a drum roll was starting in her head. I threw Aerith a worried look, and she returned it.
"Wait for it..." Yuffie repeated, detecting the click the rest of us couldn't hear.
And then...
Clank! The large, dusty and silver latch spun freely with a rattle. Yuffie raised her hands up and whooped.
"Yeah! Piece of cake!"
The safe's mighty half foot thick door swung open with a creak. Instantly, red and purple goo slipped out of it. We all stepped back, finding other contents spill out onto an old rug.
"What the?!" I gasped, watching hands suddenly spit out of the goo. It was alive?
Before any of us could answer, the slimy substance grew and grew. A green hand formed, with long and sharp fingers as large as my arm. An orange tentacle appeared, and footsteps emerged, shaking the floor under us. Dust and debris fell loosely from the worn out ceiling from powerful stomping.
A wide mouth with many teeth, smiled, yellow eyes glowing at us. I couldn't tell what it wanted to be, half its body a shade of purple and green, and the other half, a feisty red.
A monster.
"Inside the safe?!" Yuffie screeched with disbelief.
It was massive, its head halfway up to the high ceiling, and a chandelier bunked it. Irritated, the monster swiped at the chandelier with a grunt, knocking it down easily with a red tentacle, and let it fly across the room. It broke into hundreds of pieces against a wall.
Aerith and Yuffie screamed.
I stepped back, raising my bracer arm in the air with determination.
"It's just a monster. We got this!" I roared with confidence. Luckily, the Support Materia didn't interfere with my spell-casting, as long as I kept it underwhelming. I silently prayed for the Planet to lend me its energy, and it collected in my bracer until it glowed green, ready to fire.
"Lightning2!" I called, and threw my hand out, fingers flared open.
From out of nowhere, a thick bolt of lightning struck at the monster, right down the middle. It rumbled a low growl from the back of its throat while it endured a sheet of electric currents, odd limbs flying around with lack of order.
Yuffie pumped a fist at her hip.
"Yeah! Nice!"
The spasms stopped, the ground under the monster's feet left with a scorching black spot. The monster narrowed its yellow eyes at all of us, and bowed its head, grumbling to itself. And then, its skin began to shift, becoming goo once again.
"Oh no, you don't!" Yuffie warned, and she threw her large shuriken at the monster in the middle of its transformation.
The shuriken latched onto the monster, its goo getting it stuck in place at its head without noticing it. Green and purple skin on half its body changed to red, and it grew sharp red spikes all over. The entire monster was finally whole, completely red and with long sharp tentacles for arms and feet.
A tentacle slithered up to its head, grabbed at Yuffie's shuriken, and threw it right back at her fiercely. Yuffie gasped and jumped her long legs out of the way, the weapon zipping under her splits and hitting the wall.
"Whoa!"
Aerith stepped back, pulling her rod out of her cloak's pocket and extended it in her hands.
"It was a trap all along," she grumbled, pouting while casting an offensive spell. Two red tentacles came flying at her, and she gasped.
I was ready to jump in, but Yuffie's quick speed beat me to it, using her shuriken like a hatchet, and crashed it down over the tentacles before they got a chance to hit Aerith. Yuffie's bangs swayed over her glowing brown eyes, her grin wide with overconfidence. The tentacles reeled back, scratched up from the shuriken's sharpened edges. But they didn't recoil completely, just enough so to reduce the damage.
Yuffie was fast, but so was the monster. It used one of its legs to extend, its goo stretching it and acting as another arm to grab Yuffie by the leg and threw her up into the ceiling.
Her back slammed and dented into the mold and wood, saliva and a cry escaping from her lips.
Her eyes widened from the powerful impact, her upper back jabbed first before the rest of her body joined. Arms spread out like she had wings, digging into the wood, and slowly, she closed her eyes.
"Yuffie!" Aerith and I cried. Aerith unleashed a healing spell while I ran. With gravity, Yuffie's body peeled off the ceiling and began to fall back down to earth.
I tried to catch her, running under her with arms out, ready. But something grabbed my ankle so suddenly, making me yelp. I was pulled back and almost hitting the floor, face first. I flinched, hands ready to push me up against the floor, but then I was lifted upside down, my skirt and cloak trying to hide my face while my silver hair brushed over a rug. My head throbbed from the blood pulling into it as I tried to concentrate on another spell. I glowed in green, and cast Ice2. The surrounding air quickly grew cold, until a large shard of ice manifested around the creature, covering its slimy red body. But to my dismay, the creature broke through the ice with barely a scratch. Shards of it spread out as a nuisance, tentacles brushing it aside. Peeved more than damaged, the monster's tentacle threw me into the ground. I covered my head around my arms to act as a helmet, my world flipping just before slamming into the floor with a loud thud. The wood cracked. My arms shielded my head, but they throbbed when they made impact, my tiny blood vessels breaking under my skin. I cried, a wave of heat traveling through my arms and shoulders.
"Aqua!" Aerith screamed. I was still latched in, already lifted again like a limp broken toy. Aerith launched one of her offensive white magic spells, a sparkling pink wave of magic hurled at the monster, but it did little damage, only leaving so much as a few scratches across its wide face. The monster paid no heed to Aerith as she gasped, "It has high defense against magic!"
I was beaten down again, my arms holding myself tightly as wood splinted into my skin, my brain thrown back and forth inside my skull.
"Stop it!" I cried, like I was being played with. The fourth time, my back hit the floor hard, and I spat up blood. I might've had a lung just punctured with a sharp, broken floorboard. A stabbing pain made its way into my back, causing me to wince. The tentacle finally let go, and I smiled weakly to the ceiling while taking shallow breaths. It hurt to breathe.
My arms grew purple, all my hair tangled over my face, and I coughed. Blood spat across my chin to my lips. I licked it all away, embarrassed despite my injuries.
Aerith tried to cast a healing spell, but she was wrapped in red tentacles, and her rod clanked under her feet.
"Aqua! Yuffie!" She screamed.
Yuffie jumped in, about to throw her weapon, but she was whacked, hard, square in the back between her shoulder blades, knocking the breath out of her.
She gasped, and fell on her hands and knees, wheezing.
What a horrible idea this was. We could die, and no one would find us till the morning, when Barret discovers we're still gone. Everyone will be upset. Cloud will be furious. We shouldn't have gone on our own like this.
I helplessly watched Aerith carried off the floor, her legs kicking as she screamed, clawing her short nails into the monster's gooey arms.
I gasped, feeling the cold pain growing. My beads glowed, preventing me from raging in magic, even as weak as I was.
I lifted my left arm up, finding it purple and bloody, while the pink beads remained pure and emitting a soft light.
I had to save her.
My other hand, shaking with weakness, reached for the beads.
I didn't care if this monster had strong defense to magic. I could unleash powerful enough magic, enough to kill it.
"I...I got this..." I grunted, blood leaking out of my mouth and across my cheek to the floor.
My bloody fingers reached and twisted around the beads, latching on to the string. Ready to pull...
Out of nowhere, a bat swooped in through the air, and slammed straight into the monster. It gave a gurgling cry, a large wound bursting open between its eyes. Aerith was dropped a few feet, landing on her bum with a shout. She raised her head, eying our savior, and gasped. Yuffie shook as she tried to get up, turning her head to gaze at what happened.
At first, I saw only the bat, a damaged thing with nails and other sharp oddities sticking out of it, a very ganster style weapon. The monster's purple blood had saturated the wood of the weapon, but it swung again, hanging over the head of its owner.
"That's enough!" Cloud roared, his Mako eyes glowing fiercely, just before striking down on the enemy's head. The hit was so impactful, a wave of energy escaped, blowing everything back with a gust, and almost split the creature right down the middle, cracking his skull and pulling its yellow eyes together. The floor underneath the creature broke apart, floorboards bursting around it as its tentacle feet sank through. Cloud gave it no chance to recover, and pulled his bat back behind his shoulder like a classic baseball player.
Through his teeth, he gave a cry, and swung.
With one mighty swing, Cloud crashed his bat with so much effort against the monster's face, it flew back, to the other side of the room with a high-pitched growl.
A home run.
Pieces of its skin scraped off by the hideous nails, splattering across the floor, purple blood spilling along a trail. Almost split in two, the monster landed against the back wall with a loud crash, shaking the mansion briefly. It slumped, a giant space between its eyes when its odd body split open. The yellow eyes dimmed, and no more breath escaped between such sharp teeth.
Cloud collected his breath through clenched teeth, not nearly satisfied with the length of battle, while he was still craving for more.
I tried to get up, but my body refused to lift. My back felt stuck to the floor. My arms dropped back, too painful to feel them lifelessly slump around my head.
All I could really see was the dark ceiling, until Cloud's face came into vision.
My heart skipped a beat.
Cloud peered down at me, a face I was glad to see, except for his expression. He glared, face hard with disappointment as his hands came forward, wrapping around my shoulders. I winced, feeling a sharp pain in my back as he lifted me into him.
"And to think, what if I hadn't come in time," he whispered, shivering with inner rage. He held me, pushing my throbbing head under his chin, and I gladly kissed into his shirt, tasting its fabric with his scent all over it. My arms were too weak, or else I would have lifted them around his neck, pulling him closer.
"Aqua!" Aerith scampered to my side, and her hands hovered over me. She worked delicately as she began to use her healing abilities.
"Thank you, Cloud," she whimpered, her body glowing green with magic channeling into her hands.
Cloud said nothing. I could feel him shaking, hardly breathing. Even when he did breathe, he did so heavily through his nostrils, his anger still fresh. My face smudged into his chest every time he inhaled deeply, as though he was trying to calm himself down, but failed.
A warm feeling started to embrace me, like it derived from Cloud's arms, but I knew it was Aerith's magic working. The sharp and throbbing pain in my arms, slowly faded away. My bloody wounds slowly dissolved; I couldn't taste it in my mouth anymore. The piercing pain in my back was no longer a bother. I could breathe easier and deeper. My headache disappeared.
I took in a deep breath, and closed my eyes, glad to be held by Cloud despite where we may be. I thought he was with Tifa. How fortunate I felt to still get a chance to be close to him, and I pretended we had all the time in the world, holding him tighter until my arms ached.
"Aqua, are you okay?" Aerith asked, pulling me out of my daydreaming.
My cheeks burned so red when I pushed away from Cloud's arms. Aerith gave me one look, blinked, and then she giggled.
"Yep, she's fine."
"Me next," Yuffie groaned, waving weakly from another part of the room.
Aerith rushed to the ninja's side to heal her, giving Cloud a chance to have his hands grip my shoulders, and he squeezed tight until I winced.
"Why didn't you take me with you?!" He yelled. I coward away from the magnitude of his voice, shivering before his desperate eyes. Despite being healed, I thought I couldn't breathe as I avoided looking at such eyes.
"I knew you were with Tifa. She needed you and-"
Cloud grabbed my chin and forced me to look up at him.
"Look at me!"
Fear made my eyelids heavy, but slowly, I opened them, and looked up into his. Such a fierce gaze, a violent admiration behind those eyes. His quick breathing blew puffs of his breath onto my lips when he neared, his hands continuously trembling in their tight hold.
"You think my time with Tifa is more important than your life?!" He cried.
I shook my head against his stronghold.
"We didn't know-"
"Why are you making this so hard for me?! Don't you want me to protect you?!"
"I didn't mean-"
"Dammit!"
Cloud finally let go before his fingers dug too deep, pulling himself away with a curse to leave me guilty on the floor.
Yuffie stood next to Aerith, wrapping her raincoat's sleeves around her waist as she mumbled, "Geez, Cloud. Lighten up. We're all okay, aren't we? Don't be so god-damn tense."
She shouldn't have said that, or anything to him at all. Cloud gave Yuffie his strong Mako gaze, like he was ready to murder, and she gasped.
Aerith ducked her head when she muttered, "Thank you for saving us."
Cloud hissed, and walked over towards his fallen bat.
"If Barret hadn't told me where you three were, what then?" He rumbled, picking up his new weapon and slinging it over his shoulder like a street gang member about to bust someone open.
He didn't look at me, but I could tell, he was speaking directly to me when he growled quietly, "This was the stupidest thing you've ever done. By far..." He said it with so much displeasure, my chest hurt, and I gasped.
Cloud then closed his eyes, like he instantly regretted those words, and he sighed tiredly. He pulled his wet hair back with his hand, and lifted his dropped eyelids to the ceiling, letting the excess rain drip off his fingers when they ran through his scalp.
"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that," he muttered, opening his eyes a little just to gaze up at what was left of the fallen chandelier.
"Anyway, what's going on here. Why are you all here?" He asked, and sucked in another shaky breath before dropping his gaze to all of us.
He would make a brilliant strict father some day. It felt like Yuffie, Aerith and I were his children, being scolded for our reckless behavior, and we felt regret over it with the way he spoke to us, how he moved and how his eyes flashed.
Aerith gave me a hand to help me up, while Yuffie skipped over to the safe.
I was still shaky, Cloud indeed intimidating when he wanted to be, and I clung to Aerith, wanting to cry into her, but I bit my lower lip instead, hiding my eyes into her shoulder.
"Treasure hunting!" Yuffie chirped, not as affected, or at least, pretended not to be, and she stopped in front of the open safe. She then paused before looking inside, eying Cloud's hideous bat instead.
"Dude, what happened to your sword?" she pried.
Cloud blinked down at the contents in the safe and muttered, "Is that another Summon Materia?"
"What?" Yuffie already forgot what she asked, diving into the safe and snatching a bright red marble of Materia into her hyper working hands. Aerith and I neared, my hands around her arm. It was a unique experience to see the way Yuffie's eyes glowed when she twirled the bright red Materia in her fingers. She held it under her nose, spinning it around with careful concentration, like a jewelry expert studying a gem.
"See? Didn't I tell you?" she whispered, fascinated in the magical object.
I gazed down at the only other item in the safe left.
A rusty key with a faded plastic keychain.
"Hey, there's a key, too," I mentioned, kneeling to pick it up. Even healed, I could feel phantoms of the pain in my arms when I stretched them out to reach for the key, wincing.
When I stood, I stared at the keychain, a faded label in pencil behind a tiny plastic cover that labeled, "Basement".
Cloud eyed it over my shoulder.
"Well, we know where we're going next," he muttered. I stuffed the key in my pouch.
"Do you remember how to get to the basement?" I asked, unable to look at him as I did. Cloud narrowed his eyes, displeased with my avoidance, but he answered anyway with a grumble.
"Of course. It's this way." And he started, talking long strides out of the room.
The rest of us followed. My hand stayed with Aerith, her presence the only thing that soothed me while Cloud's anger hovered over him like a thunderstorm.
We went down a creaky, long hallway, the floorboards creaking while dust clouds parted around our feet. Cloud scoffed as he brushed at a few cobwebs violently, still on edge like he wasn't done being upset. Whenever he reacted, it was overly aggressive, like the way he opened a room's door, accidentally pulling it off its rusted hinges. He hissed and tossed the door aside, stepping into a tiny room.
There was an empty desk to one wall, along with a bookshelf, and a thick metal smoke stack to the other end.
I could see the way Cloud's eyes flickered to that smoke stack, his memories working, reeling him back into an uncomfortable place. He didn't want to be here as much as I did. Before Yuffie had a chance to complain about nothing in the room, Cloud planted his hands onto the smoke stack, and slid its door into one wall. Metal rubbed against metal, an uncomfortable, loud screech that made me press my teeth together.
A dark descending staircase revealed itself to us.
"This way," Cloud grunted, going first. Yuffie followed, her gasps from having her foot almost slip in between the flimsy steps. I went behind Aerith, ducking my head and entering a dark tower of stone. Water dripped, probably from the rain, soaking up the stones closing in around us. The wooden steps wedged into the stone blocks were wet, slippery and squeaking to our feet. I touched the walls for balance, but instantly felt something crawl, and I gasped, reeling my hand back with a flick.
It was a long way down the old spiral staircase, like it was built hundreds of years ago. It smelt like mud and rain, but when we reached the bottom, the scent of death crept up my nose, and I covered it up with a hand.
Weak lanterns flickered with old lightbulbs still intact, covered in webs, spiders and dead moths trapped inside. Yuffie cringed loudly as she stepped forth, drops of water falling into scattered puddles through a long, dungeon-like hallway.
"What the hell is this place? Are we in a dungeon?" she asked, her eyes everywhere. My head bumped into a chain hanging from the ceiling, and it clashed with other chains, all as creepy chimes to a wind that could never reach such a place. I took Aerith's hand again and squeezed. She squeezed back, feeling just as frightened as I was.
Cloud didn't seem as bothered, remaining pissed more than afraid. He carried on, passing bars into dark rooms without care.
"If I'm right, Sephiroth may be in the lab, waiting for me," he muttered. His new bat appeared just as frightening as his Buster sword. It may not kill you in one hit, but all the nails in it could do some uncomfortable damage. I pressed my teeth together, staring at the weapon, and looked away. My feet quickened, letting go of Aerith to catch up to Cloud just so that I could barely hover behind him, and ignored the sight of his bat.
"Cloud…" I began, ready to tell him what the three of us encountered before the mansion. He was quiet, waiting while brushing a hand over a dangling chain from hitting his face.
"On our way here, we found a man in a black cloak," I shared.
"Yeah, I saw his body. So, there's more of them, then. Your theory may be right, about the tattoos. There could be at least eight of these things, and we already saw two of them. Did this one say anything to you?"
He stopped, casting a more subtle glow when he turned to me.
I couldn't linger into his stare for as long as I wanted, wrapping my arms around my sudden upset stomach, and glanced through a set of bars into a room of darkness.
"He mentioned something about a Reunion. He was dragging himself to go there, into the mountains," I replied.
Bats screeched, a small group of them flapping wildly over our heads, crashing into chains together and escaping up into the staircase.
Cloud crossed his arms, looking away.
"Odd. When Hojo mentioned guests going to the Reunion, did he mean those cloaked men?"
An odd thought came to mind.
"Hojo did say the guests were a bunch of failures. What did he mean by that? Did he make those men?" I thought aloud.
Yuffie's eyes grew. "Whoa. That's twisted shit," she mumbled, trying to follow, but her attention span was too short, her focus already set on something else. She observed a set of bars before she peered her head in between them to get a look inside a cell.
Cloud considered my thought, a hand under his chin.
"I wouldn't be surprised if he did. He did give Red a similar tattoo on his body. That XIII tattoo."
My eyelids fluttered, surprised at his observation.
"Hojo gave Red that tattoo?"
Cloud looked at me again, surprised I hadn't noticed.
"Yeah. He tattoos his specimens. I suppose it makes more sense now, considering the numbers are in Roman numerals like that. Only Hojo does that," he answered quietly. I shivered, picturing more creepy men in dark cloaks roaming the earth, tattoos on their hands as they groaned like zombie clones, searching for Black Materia or this Reunion place.
"Come on. The lab should be this way. Stay close," Cloud warned, and he walked again. Nervously, I did stay close, my arms crossed and ready to ask him how Tifa was, but I held my breath for a few seconds, almost afraid to know. I was just too curious to keep silent.
"How is Tifa holding up?" I asked, picturing the beautiful woman asleep in bed or sipping a fine brandy at the inn's lounge with Red and Barret.
Cloud blinked once, his eyes ahead, and he swallowed hard, a bit tense. He then answered almost too sharply, "She's resting." His tone told me to drop it.
That bastard.
That was all I was going to get. I chewed into my cheek, wanting to dig in more info, and maybe that's what Cloud suspected, leaving little to nothing on purpose, just to watch me squirm. Instead of prying, I nodded, shrugging my shoulders and wide eyes down at the filth of hard mud under our feet.
"Great," I chirped, pretending to be content with that. When I gazed over my shoulder at Aerith, her emerald eyes flashed a warning, her eyebrows up while she shook her head slightly.
"Just drop it," is what her look said, and I did, slowing down to have her at my side, and taking her hand again. Cloud gave us a quick glance, barely a turn of his head, and then he looked away quickly. His strides appeared longer than before.
We passed a wooden door with a dead bolt around its knob, and I immediately wondered if that key I retrieved from the safe could open it. My hand tugged on Aerith's when I stopped, and I whispered to her, "Maybe the key can open this?"
She held my arm with a strong grip and shook her head.
"What if it's another monster?" she trembled.
Cloud unexpectedly stopped before he was too far ahead and glanced over his shoulder, Yuffie bumping into him with a loud "oof!"
"What are you two doing?" he asked, peeved at Yuffie walking too close to him.
I took out the key and slipped it into the lock.
"I want to see if this key works," I answered dryly, and twisted it in place. The lock clicked. Cloud turned completely around and froze, a chain dangling over his shoulder.
"Maybe we shouldn't open any of these doors," he suggested.
I twisted the key and the lock clicked again, pulling back the bolt from inside the wall.
"Too late," I chimed, lifting a wide, false grin on my face.
I pushed the door open, and poked my head inside, webs stretching across the doorframe until they broke apart. Its hinges creaked loudly, like it hasn't been open for a very long time, stiff and difficult. I had to use effort to push it completely open. The room was dark. Dim lighting from the hallway lanterns vaguely gave enough to help see inside. Aerith clicked her flashlight on and glared a light into the small room. It may have been a wine cellar, with stacks and stacks of dark bottles all along the walls upon racks, webs, and dust covering them up. Dozens of barrels cluttered together. An old black iron chandelier hung above the room.
When Aerith's flashlight sparked to the center of the room, the two of us stiffened.
I first thought it was a long table. I had to step near it, passing hanging webs with irritation when some went into my mouth. I spat with my tongue and got a better look at the table.
Aerith's footsteps came in, along with Cloud's and Yuffie's. Yuffie gasped when she saw what we were all gazing down at with horror.
"A coffin!" she screeched, backing away until she was closest to the door.
I carefully observed the coffin. I don't think I've ever seen an actual coffin before, not like this. It was fine dark wood, painted black, polished and well-made, but no plaque nor name plastered onto it. Silver handles reflected the distant lantern light when I took a finger to one, feeling how cold it was. It vibrated under the slightest touch, like something inside was moving or grumbling.
"Don't touch it!" Aerith whispered, grabbing my arm tight.
Cloud crossed his arms and hissed, eyes to the door where Yuffie hovered.
"This is a waste of time. Let's go before we awake another monster," he sneered, and turned his back to the human coffin. He tapped his bat lightly over his shoulder as he went, expecting me to follow when Aerith gladly retreated with him. I sighed, turning away from the coffin after one more last lingering look.
"I'm sorry to disturb your sleep," I muttered to whoever was resting inside, and then left.
I closed the door and locked its dead bolt again, a bit disappointed to find nothing really intriguing apart from a coffin. I wondered what laid inside it, but knew better than to find out, and left the door locked.
Quickly, I rushed to catch up with the rest of the gang.
"Guys, wait-" I gasped, suddenly feeling ill, and my legs buckled underneath me. I leaned against a cold brick wall, breathing hard, when a cold sweat began to manifest under my cloak. I sank back, falling until my rear sat in the cold floor, wanting to vomit even though I hadn't eaten anything but a Powerbar.
He's here…. Sephiroth is here…
Aerith kneeled beside me, taking her hand to brush away my loose strands of silver hair away from my sweaty face, the knowing already in her eyes.
Cloud stood behind her, his face paler than usual.
"He's here then," he whispered, turning his hard eyes down the end of the hall where it ended at a steel door.
I wanted to leave, already miserable. Even when Aerith tried to help me up, I fought against her and stayed down, shaking my head.
"Go. I'll stay here. I don't want to see him," I struggled, tasting acid in the depths of my esophagus.
Aerith lifted her eyes up to Cloud, giving him a distressing look when she requested, "Maybe you should go on? The rest of us will wait here."
Yuffie groaned while Cloud thought about it.
"No! I want to see this dude!" Yuffie whined. Cloud scoffed at that and hissed towards her through his teeth, "You're not going alone with me."
When he turned his back to us, she stuck her tongue at him.
"We shouldn't separate either…" he muttered to himself, thinking.
I closed my eyes and gasped, "Just go. I'll be fine. There's nothing out here but bats. I'll just be outside the door, waiting," I huffed, lowing my head into my lap.
Aerith settled a hand to the back of my neck, swiping away more drops of sweat.
"Let me stay with you," she whispered.
I shook my head.
"I'll be okay. What if you guys get into battle? You need to heal," I breathed, trying to look up at her, but the dim lanterns suddenly seemed too bright, and I closed my eyes instead, bumping my head back into the wall.
Aerith's hand pulled away. Cloud had his eyebrows up, disliking my idea. Before there was more discussion, he stepped beside me, and bent his knees. A strong arm looped under my shoulders, and I was hoisted.
"Let me stay!" I panicked, Cloud pulling me into him as he stood tall again.
"I'm not leaving you alone out here. I've got you," he insisted, not letting me win this argument. My face burned as I slid a shaky arm around his back until my hand gripped over his shoulder, trying not to get my face too close to his, even though it felt strangely encouraged. I looked away as we walked again, feeling Cloud's hand rest above my breast. Yuffie skipped ahead to the door, and pushed it open easily. It may have been opened recently.
Aerith kept her head low, keeping her thoughts to herself while walking behind the rest of us.
"Whoa," Yuffie awed, her eyes huge as she stepped into the room. I could feel Cloud's whole body crystallize for a second, a brief hesitation. With barely a glance up, I found his neck swallow, and then his lips curled into a displeased line. Something about this room disturbed him. His fingers dug into me, probably without even realizing it, and he began to shake lightly.
Cloud pushed me closer to him, my forehead against his neck, giving me a thought that perhaps this was helping him more than helping me. Cloud lifted a boot inside, and it clanked to a floor of hard cement. Another step, and we entered into what, I thought, would be a replica of Dr. Frankenstine's lab. My eyes grew, scanning all up on the dark stone walls, catching chains and shackles hanging. So many pipes laid vertically over the rest of the walls, drawing into large block computers sleeping around the room. There was a large table, fit for a body, and what appeared to be an adjustable surgical light hovering over it. Dark stains littered across the floor. My breathing grew, jaw dropping as I scanned the room along with Cloud, not believing what laid beneath the Shinra Mansion. Weak lighting made the place appear grey. I could picture the lab up and running with bright lights, a green haze from the Mako traveling into the pipes.
Out of nowhere, I blurted, "Is this some kind of Resident Evil shit?"
No one knew what that meant, all eyebrows raised. Aerith stayed close to the door, her figure appearing tiny around it as she gazed dreadfully at a pair of tanks to one end of the room.
My fingers slid away from Cloud, and with struggle, I dragged myself to those tanks. One was partially broken, its glass still scattered around it, with dust and mold along its rim.
The other tank was intact, its door open. A ghost of Mako's menthol scent lingered, sucking into my mouth as cold breath when I inhaled it.
I planted my hands to the tank, feeling the thick glass behind a mucky layer of dust. My knees were ready to drop me as they bent, either from weakness or fear, as I gazed inside the tank, imagining a trapped person inside it.
What did Hojo do to these people? Why was he so cruel? Without knowing it, I felt a tear fall across my cheek, my lips trembling as I traced my fingers inside, taking a nail over scratched letters that the prisoner scrawled.
Goosebumps coursed throughout my body, shivering me into an icy place.
I transported back in time, trying to imagine the struggle it took to sketch out the words that were scratched across the inside of the glass backwards. It was a message to the other tank, a prisoner trying to communicate to the other. What was used? A finger nail? A piece of screw or chain?
Feeding time, that's our chance.
I gasped, pulling my hand back like the words burned my fingers, and rammed them over my eyes.
"What a horrible man," I trembled, blinking tears into my palm. I didn't want to look at the tanks again, and turned my back to them. My boots pushed away bits of the glass, clanking like tiny ghost sounds around me, echos of the tank breaking when the prisoner escaped. Slowly, my hand dropped over my mouth, exposing my watery eyes to scan the terrible world that Hojo made, and I tried to make a story of it.
Cloud's eyes clung to the tanks, and like they called to him, he stepped closer. Very slowly, he put a gloved finger to those scratched words. He eyed it closely, concentrating like he was trying to figure something out, his head inside the tank like he was the one trapped in its horrifying world.
He said nothing, blinking constantly as he pulled back, looking at the broken one next to him. Something in Cloud's mind whirled, the gears trying to click into place, but something was missing. It looked like he wanted to understand, but what?
"This..." he inhaled sharply, turning to me with his eyes becoming far away.
"This hurts, seeing this. Like I should know why, but I don't. I don't understand," he fretted softly.
Cloud's broken memories.
Was there something to this place, those tanks, that had anything to do with his past?
He dropped his dark eyes to the broken tank again, struggling to connect the dots. Along his sides, his hands shook, and soon, his breathing increased.
"Why does it hurt?" He whispered, taking one hand to his head. He shut his eyes tight, gripping his hair strongly in between his fingers, and gasped again, like he was struggling to breathe.
I laid a cold hand to his hot cheek, feeling its perspiration, followed gently by another, until I held his face into my hands, staring up at him while trying not to break as well. Cloud opened his eyes, surveying mine as his hand dropped from his hair.
I wish I could dive deep into him, to trace his memories and link them together in place, to help him find them, even if they were to be painful. Even if they were something to be forgotten as a way for his mind to protect itself, Cloud needed all of his memories.
His hands met with mine, fingers blending, and he closed his eyes, leaning into one of my cold palms like it soothed away his crippling thoughts. His lips barely brushed over it, and he sighed, new inner thoughts tormenting him.
"I want to know," he whispered, opening his eyes. "I want to remember."
He studied me, trying to decipher my thoughts when I stayed quiet. I was suddenly internally upset, but at Tifa. She knew Cloud's memories were flawed, and yet she lied, to keep him protected. Like Bugenhagen lying to Red, Tifa was doing the same, keeping Cloud safe. I bit my lower lip, looking away as anger swelled inside me, mentally telling myself to demand her to tell Cloud everything she knew, like how wrong his past story was.
No, it's not Tifa's fault. Blaming wasn't going to help Cloud.
"Aqua, you're far away," Cloud reminded, pulling me back.
I closed my eyes, and like pressing a reset button, I opened them and tried to smile, shaking my head lightly to myself while pulling my hands back.
"I got lost there for a minute," I admitted nervously, and thought I felt the ghosts of this room walk right through me, a cold and disturbing chill clinging to my bones until they frosted over.
My knees could no longer bear my normal weigh. Too weak, I collapsed into Cloud, and broke into a sweat.
It was easy to get lost into our own little world, that I've even forgotten we were still under the Shinra Mansion. Sephiroth's presence wrecked havoc in my body's warning system, raising my anxiety even when Cloud held me.
"Cloud!" Yuffie cried.
Aerith gasped.
I pressed my cheek over his right shoulder, and stared, just as Cloud tightened his hold around my waist.
With invisible force, Yuffie and Aerith were pushed back, and shoved up into the walls.
"I can't move!" Aerith grunted, trying to fight against the ghosts that kept hold of her.
Books fell off shelves, some fluttering out of the way and into the lab. Loud footsteps approached. Boots crunched at split open books, smudging mud across the pages. Forgotten towers of them, split cleanly in half by a very sharp blade, letting them fall into pieces of hard cover and paper all along the floor of old stains.
"This place brings back memories," Sephiroth spoke, calm and smiling coldly at me and Cloud.
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