Chapter Twenty-Three

 Labyrinth of Blood

            Cloud barely managed to catch himself with a hand on the ground behind him when the door he had been sleeping against opened abruptly, spilling him out into the hallway. He blinked drowsily at first before his supporting hand twitched involuntarily and splashed something warm and wet onto his arm. Instantly, he was wide-awake as he sat up on his own, bringing that arm up and into the flickering light of the hallway behind him.

            Droplets of an eye-catching scarlet brilliance he recognized all to well decorated his arm and the palm of his glove. Cloud gasped inwardly in shock and whirled around, staring at the long hallway behind him and praying that what he remembered from the past wasn't true in the present.

            The floor of the hallway, a spotless metallic gray before, now bore an endless streak of the same crimson liquid Cloud rubbed away from his arm and glove onto one of the sheets of the cot he was supposed to be occupying. He leaned over and peered down the hallway that led out of the prisoner area, his eyes traveling along the morbid path of blood that was briefly interrupted by a darkened form sprawled out directly over the trail. Cloud scooted out of the cell and stumbled towards the form, reaching out with a glove that came away covered in blood once more. He gingerly turned the body over, putting the face of the man into the lighting of the hallway.

            It was the same guard that Cloud had remembered was assigned to guard them, his eyes wide open in shock and his mouth slightly parted as if he had been about to let out a scream that had been cut short. Cloud glanced downwards at the guard's torso and saw a single, familiar slash across the man's abdomen, his pallid intestines spilling out from the gash and the tilt Cloud had put the man at. Cloud grimaced, for it had been all too long since he had last seen a wound like this.

            But the last time that he had, it was one that had nearly taken Tifa's life in the Nibelheim Reactor so long ago.

            It was only by Tifa's reactions that had allowed her to barely survive the blow to her abdomen. She had tried to back away in time, but the sword had still caught her deep enough to make a wound that had been life threatening. Cloud let the man drop back to the ground, rising from his kneeling position and ignoring the blood that now stained the knees of his pants. He cautiously went ahead a few steps and poked his head around the corner, following the path of blood with his eyes. They found three more bodies slumped over in the trail of blood, two wearing the uniform of the guard and the third wearing a business suit of one of the simple workers.

            Cloud ducked back around the corner, inhaling shakily. That path of blood had continued past the bodies and past his line of current sight, extending beyond into the shadows of the floor. It was the same gruesome trail he remembered and feared, for it marked not only the deaths of hundreds of people but the return of the one person he had worked so hard to defeat.

            He closed his eyes and commanded his mind to stop racing like a trapped mouse. He quickly traced his way back to his cell, entering as quietly as he could. Vincent and Cid remained in the same positions he had left them in. He tiptoed over to Cid and shook the grizzled man's shoulder, ignoring the snort that Cid made and the quiet curse that followed.

            "What is it?" Cid yawned, glancing up at Cloud. Cloud put a finger over his lips, quieting Cid with that gesture that was followed by another directed towards the wide open cell door. He moved away from the cot as Cid sat up on his cot, wincing as it creaked in complaint to his weight shifting.

            Vincent woke without a single noise at the sound of the creak, swiftly moving to his feet the instant his eyes opened. Cloud looked up at him in surprise, but his surprise was interrupted by the faint curse that emitted from Cid's direction. Vincent and Cloud padded silently to the doorway, the former choosing not to comment on the condition of their formerly sealed cell door.

            "Holy crap," Cid repeated for the others' benefits as he stared down at the seemingly infinite trail before them. "Is that all…blood?"

            Cloud nodded. "I checked," he said, holding up one gloved hand that was still slightly stained from his previous fall into the liquid.

            "And it's still wet," Vincent commented flatly. He peered around the doorframe of the cell and glanced down the hallway. "Fairly fresh kill, I would say."

            Cid followed the man's gaze and gagged almost instantly. Cloud realized that, in his rush, he had left the dead man lying in a position that clearly revealed his innards. One hand was stretched towards the trio as if he were making a soundless plea for help.

            Just then, the door opposite of them slid open with a faint hissing noise. Aeris stood in the doorway, light green eyes wide with surprise. Her eyes settled on the threesome standing before her with a look of relief as she darted forward and flung herself at her father.

            "I heard the most awful noises while I was trying to sleep, dad," she mumbled into Vincent's shirt as he held her carefully. "They were all coming from outside, but I was too afraid to try and look. Then it got all quiet, and I tried the door, and…" Her eyes shifted to the ground, noting the wide splashes of blood that led to the corpse still lying in the hall. "Oh, my God…"

            Vincent was too late in shielding his daughter's innocent eyes from the brutally slaughtered man. Instead, he firmly placed himself between Aeris and the dead guard and glanced over his shoulder at Cloud.

            "Go see if the other two are awake," he said softly. "The sooner we get out of here, the better."

            Cloud obeyed without another thought and picked his way over to the open door opposite of the cell he had occupied. Inside, Tifa and Yuffie still slept, oblivious to the horrific scene just outside of their door. He went for Tifa first, kneeling beside her and touching her shoulder gently.

            Tifa let out a low murmur before she opened her eyes halfway, slowly focusing them on Cloud's face with a deliberate sleepiness. Once she recognized who he was, she sat straight up and had hopped off of the cot, glancing around quickly.

            "How did you get in here?" she hissed. Then her eyes traveled to the side and saw the door to her prison gaping open into the hallway, where the trail of blood could just barely be seen from where she stood. "Oh, God…that isn't…is it?" she asked, her brown eyes widening in mixed surprise and shock.

            Cloud jerked his head towards the door, indicating for her to go out as he went to Yuffie's side. He stood over her, unsure of how to wake the sleeping ninja and deciding to just nudge the side of her cot a little before he saw a dark red object gleaming from one of the pockets of her khaki shorts. He narrowed his eyes and jerked it out of her pocket with one swift movement, causing Yuffie to lose whatever sleep she had been trying to gain and jump straight out of her reclining position to land defensively on the floor beside Cloud.

            "Yuffie, how did you get this?" Cloud asked, wavering between anger and relief. The object residing in her shorts was the summoning materia Bahamut had given him before he had left, and one of the things that had been confiscated from him along with his sword.

            "Oh. I stole that from one of the slots in your sword. Don't get mad at me!" Yuffie added quickly, raising her hands in front of her face in a defensive gesture when Cloud lowered his sapphire-eyed gaze on her.

            "Yuffie, I could just kiss you!" Cloud exclaimed instead, obviously not what Yuffie was expecting to hear. He reached out and patted the girl on the head, clutching the orb of materia in his other hand.

            "Um…explanation, please?" Yuffie asked, taken aback.

            "Go on outside and meet the others. I'll try to explain it to you later, maybe."

            Cloud followed the ninja out of the door, almost bumping into her slight form when she stopped in her tracks to stare down at the morbid streak of blood on the floor between her and the rest of the group. She pointed a shaking finger downwards, attempting and failing miserably to get words out of her mouth.

            "W-w-what is t-t-that?" she asked finally.

            Cloud bumped Yuffie forward with a firm hand on her shoulder blades, causing her to stumble out and land, trembling, in the dead center of the blood. She skipped quickly out of the area, landing beside Tifa with a nimbleness that was fueled partly by her anxiety to get away from the blood beneath her feet. Cloud followed once more, joining the others and glancing at Tifa.

            "It's the same thing that happened when we were captured years ago," she breathed, hands clasped together and turning white at the knuckles. "Cloud…it has to be him again."

            Cloud nodded slowly. "Last time we followed the trail and found…"

            "Oh, my God." Tifa drew one of her hands to her mouth, turning just as pale as how her knuckles had previously been. "The President…Reeve…"

            "We have to find our weapons first before we go any further," Vincent interjected as Cloud and Tifa fell silent. "Do you have any idea where they might be?"

            In reply, there was the clattering noise of metal being dropped against metal just around the corner. Cloud glanced sharply towards the others before running full out towards the end of the prisoner holding area, jumping over the sprawled body of the guard and peering cautiously around the corner.

            The trail of blood was still there, and so were the bodies he had seen before. But now there was a pile of weapons—their weapons—lying just in front of him, with no sign as to how they had gotten there.

            The hairs on the back of Cloud's neck prickled as if someone was breathing down his back. He nervously ran a hand over them before stepping out into the open, leaning down and picking up his sword from the pile. The others joined him once they saw him step forward and found their weapons as well, all without a single mar or anything missing from them.

            "There's something strange going on here," Yuffie muttered as she replaced all of her shuriken about her person, strapping her throwing origami over back. "Why would our weapons be sitting out here in the open?"

            "They weren't here the first time I looked," Cloud added. He looked back at Tifa, meeting her eyes apprehensively while she returned the look with just as much fear in her doe-brown eyes. "Something in this building is still alive…and it isn't just us."

*                       *                       *

            Vincent stopped abruptly in his steps, causing a crash behind him as Aeris bumped straight into his back with Yuffie following suite. As the ninja backed away with a loud complaint that echoed throughout the silent halls of the Headquarters, Cloud stopped as well and turned back towards him, Tifa and Cid taking care to not bump into him.

            "What's wrong?" Cloud asked, slightly impatiently.

            "We have to get Aya," Vincent returned. "They probably took her to the science wing." With that, he made a quick detour and disappeared in an offshoot hallway to his left, Aeris following him with quick, hurrying steps.

            Yuffie snorted and looked at Cloud. "Orders, oh great and wise leader?"

            "Follow them," Cloud said, ignoring her prodding. He backtracked and jogged down the hallway, unconsciously reaching behind his back and loosening the draw of his sword as he moved. Tifa drew up beside him quickly, glancing over her shoulder to check Cid's slightly slower progress.

            "I don't like this," she muttered to Cloud, lowering her voice as they moved along. "The open doors…the blood…it all looks the same."

            "And if it is the same, then Reeve is dead," Cloud added quietly. "We'll go back once we get Dusk."

            Vincent knew the layout of the Shinra Headquarters—despite the wear of thirty-odd years since he had last placed a foot in it and Reeve's slight remodeling—like the back of his hand. He took detour after detour, cutting through halls and doors that no simple visitor would ever find or pluck up the courage to use. As he moved rapidly onwards, Aeris did her best to keep up with him, gulping nervously as they passed scores of dead humans—the ex-employers and employees of the Sith Company.

            A flash of light caught the corner of Aeris' eye as she hurried onwards. She skidded to a halt immediately, turning her full focus onto the long, glass cylinder tank that extended from ceiling to floor and gave off a faint, neon purple glow. Inside was an animal—a reddish creature she had never seen before, but reminded her of the small feline that had slipped into the grotto somehow without getting wet. It was like that cat, but much bigger with a slight, darker red ruff of fur traveling from its head down its spine, ending at the base of its elegant neck. She stepped forward cautiously, backing away a step when the creature abruptly raised its head from the sleeping position it had been in before and turned its tawny-eyed gaze on her.

            It looks so familiar…

            "Aeris?" Cloud and Tifa stopped behind her, frowning in concern. "We have to catch up with Vincent before we lose him. What's wrong?"

            Aeris pointed to the animal that watched all three of them with a steady look, meeting eyes with no fear imprinted within the golden depths at all. "Look. It looks like it doesn't want to be in this thing."

            Tifa let out a short gasp once she caught the full view of the animal, examining its supple body from its long muzzle to the lashing tail with some sort of flame at the tip. "Cloud, that's…the same species as Nanaki, isn't it?"

            "Yeah, but didn't he say that he was the last of his kind?" Cloud took a cautious step forward as Yuffie and Cid joined them. He reached out and placed a hand on the smooth glass, running it over to look for weaknesses. "But if this one is like Nanaki, then it shouldn't be here at all."

            "Can you get it out somehow?" Tifa questioned, faint hope in her voice.

            "I'll try. Stand back." Cloud hefted his huge cleaver blade over his shoulder and into his hands, pointing it towards the glass cylinder. Tifa and Aeris scooted backwards while he brought the sword high over his head and, with a short cry, let the blade come slicing down onto the glass. He took it back up again and repeated the stroke about two feet to the right of the first cut and then made two horizontal cuts, each approximately four feet apart from each other, whose tips joined with the first two vertical slices.

            He quickly backed up as the lion/wolf-like animal raised itself to its four paws and took a running start at the cut area, crashing through the slice of glass and landing with it underneath its paws. The glass shattered with the weight of the creature while it danced away from the area quickly, avoiding any cuts resulting from the broken bits of glass. Then it slowly turned to Cloud, regarding him with a clear golden stare.

            "Thank you for freeing me," it—she—said. Her voice was decidedly female and just as beautiful and warm as her slit-pupil amber eyes. She sat back on her red haunches, one visibly marred by a tattoo reading "XVII", and bowed her head to the group. "I have been held there for longer than I have liked."

            "My name is Cloud Strife," Cloud said, nodding in like to the animal. "This is Tifa Lockheart. The one who first spotted you is Aeris Valentine, and those two back there are Cid Highwind and Yuffie Kisaragi. If you saw him, the dark one who passed earlier was Vincent Valentine. I apologize for his curt behavior; he has other worries to attend to at the moment."

            "I understand. I'm surprised that Aeris even noticed me; most people usually don't. What I was called by the scientists was Red XVII, but the name that was passed down to me from my mother is Shar."

            "Where are you from, Shar?" Cloud asked curiously. "Are there any more of you?"

            Shar cocked her head to one side. "I, and the rest of my tribe, originated from the Cosmo Canyon area but eventually moved to the Corel area after some incident within Cosmo Canyon that forced our departure. Some of our members remained behind, but the rest of us went away. I…I was captured when humans came to raid our village. They killed everyone except for the most healthy and fit 'specimens', as they called us. That was about a year ago. The rest of my tribe that were brought here have died, and I am thus the last one of my kind that I know of."

            "There's one more who's alive and living in Cosmo Canyon," Tifa added, seeing the brief look of grief in Shar's eyes. "His name is Nanaki, the son of Seto."

            "The son of Seto is alive? I remember him. We were both but cubs when I left."

            "Shar, would you like to join us until we can bring you to Cosmo Canyon?" Cloud asked. "I know I'm rushing the subject a bit here, but all of us are on an urgent quest and need to meet with Vincent and the one he is retrieving."

            "I will gladly join your group," Shar replied with another brief nod of her massive head. "Shall we?"

            "He went that way, I think," Aeris said, rushing off in the direction Vincent had taken. The others followed once more, Shar bounding easily along by Aeris' side.

            Vincent tracked through one last slightly coiled hallway, forcing his muscles to relax. The science wing would be coming up soon, and tensing would only hinder his reflexes. He paused in front of the huge, metal gray door in front of him and glanced at the keypad to his right whose screen displayed the message: "Please enter your identification number and password." Without a second thought, he reached forward with his mechanical arm and savagely ripped the keypad's panel off of the wall, exposing the circuitry inside. Vincent roughly flung the panel away to let it clatter against the far wall of the hallway and reached deep within the tangles of circuits, hooking his mechanical arm's claws around as many wires as he could. With a yank that used barely as much power as his earlier dissembling of the panel itself, he pulled a good half of the wire circuits inside of the alcove out, ignoring the sparks that flew angrily at him. The door slid open reluctantly, revealing the darkened room within and allowing Vincent to finally infiltrate the secrets that lay behind it—and, perhaps, to finally keep the unfulfilled promise he had made to Dusk so long ago.