Chapter 2… woo. I never really did chapters before. ^.^;

By the way, in the last chapter where I mentioned in the foreword that the later parts of this fic were inspired by Evanescence, this does not mean it is a song-fic. I don't really do songfics, I like to turn an inspiration from music into a full-blown tale. ^.^

This doesn't mean that you shouldn't check out the lovely songfics by RikuNghts, also inspired by Evanescence. I guess the band just really speak Vincent, huh?

One more thing… in case anyone notices irregularities with the game here, I haven't played it for a while and I'm recalling the events from memory so I'm bound to get a couple of things wrong or miss something here and there. Remember, this fic centers on Vincent's emotions, not facts.

That said, the story continues…

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The temple was a huge pyramid-like structure rising from a forest of deciduous trees. It looked ominous even from a great distance, towering out of the surrounding woods like some forgotten colossus. It looked even more intimidating when we were standing right by it.

Aeris seemed anxious to get inside, and when we approached across the rope-bridge I began to feel a strange sensation, like someone was trying to speak directly into my mind but was unable to... a consciousness that was anxious, excited, whispering in some language that was not human. It was unsettling, but not menacing.

I looked over at Cloud, but he seemed to sense nothing. Aeris, however, was looking about with wide-eyes in all directions, looking like she was straining to hear something. A range of expressions flowed on her face, from anxiety to intrigue, bewilderment to understanding.

"You're scared... but happy? Because I'm here?" She said, talking apparently to our unseen hosts.

Cloud looked a bit uneasy, and I saw him keep looking at me through the corner of my eye. I knew that my face was unreadable; expressionless. This was always so. Perhaps then, he felt assured by my presence, as I showed no fear?

That may be because I felt no fear. The only fear I held was of myself.

On we went up the great steps up to the entrance at the top. There was another of those men shrouded in black capes... He had a number tattoo.

"Does this mean that Sephiroth...?" Cloud started as the man evaporated into mist.

"Is in here. I think so." Aeris said calmly. "Let's go."

We walked in through the big dark archway and appeared in a small room, supported by stone pillars and lit with a few guttering torches that threw a deep orange glow about the room, casting large shadows behind the pillars. And there, slumped and leaning against a stone altar, was the Turk Tseng.

He looked like he was on his last legs, a large wound was trickling blood from his torso; he was pale and sweating from pain and blood loss. Aeris froze when she saw him.

I slowly levelled my gun at him, in case he tried anything. Being a former Turk myself, I knew that Turks can sink to any level to get the jump on the enemy.

Aeris had a brief exchange with Tseng before running behind a pillar, Cloud following her. I kept my gun pointed at Tseng, both of us staring at the other. I recognised the uniform he was wearing only too well, for I had worn an identical uniform even upon the day Hojo murdered me. As I looked in Tseng's eyes, I realised that he meant no harm anymore. He was defeated, and there would be no more fighting from him. He carried a resigned look in his eyes.

Cloud and Aeris returned, Aeris sniffing a little and passing a finger underneath both her eyes.

"Put the keystone on the altar..." He said, passing Cloud the coveted stone. He stood up slowly and I followed him with my gun as he moved to rest against a side-pillar. His breathing was becoming laboured and a trickle of blood was forming at the side of his mouth. This was the end for Tseng...

Cloud stepped forward and placed the stone upon the altar. It began to glow, and I felt we were being transported somewhere. I saw Aeris take one last glance at the fallen Tseng before we vanished into a swirl of blue light.

When we reappeared from the light, we were standing in the most bizarre place I had ever seen in my life. There was an endless, multi-levelled labyrinth of stairs, arches, tunnels and dead ends. It looked impassable.

I looked behind us, but there was no evidence of anywhere we might have came in through. "No exits... we can't turn back."

Aeris ran up to Cloud, who also looked concerned. "Cloud, I know it's hard, but we can make it!"

I closed my eyes. Here we go, I thought as we stepped into the maze.

We seemed to be chasing after a strange old man with a beard and a pointy hat for most of the maze, Aeris explained this was a Spirit Body of the Ancients, whose job it was throughout the centuries to guard the Temple. We finally caught up to him and he gave us some strange healing potions to help us along, in exchange for Gil. What use he would have for Gil, I do not know. Next to him was a box containing a silver rifle, which although had no materia slots it was more powerful than my shotgun. I holstered it before we left the room.

On we went. We eventually escaped the labyrinth, but were then faced with a cavern filled with dangerous rolling boulder traps. Cloud seemed confident and ran up the passage only to be knocked down by a boulder and sent rolling back to lie groaning at our feet.

"There must be a way to get past these..." Aeris said, watching the great stones roll down.

I noticed that each boulder had a hole in the direct centre...

"If we time our run, and crouch in time, we will be able to duck into the hole as the boulder rolls by."

Cloud and Aeris looked at me. "Vincent, are you positive about this? Sounds dangerous..."

"Watch." With a steadying breath, I ran towards an oncoming boulder, watching the surface as it rolled, and dived with a grunt under the boulder just as the hole was turning over me.

I heard Aeris scream. "Vincent!!" It must have looked as if I'd been crushed, but this was evidently not so as I scrambled from under the boulder as it rolled away only to just make it in time to dive under the next boulder hole. This was a closer shave, I might add, and I had to be even quicker to make it under the final stone. Finally, I reached the end and exhaustedly hauled the leaver to stop the boulders.

That last time had been a very close shave; a little strip of my cloak was skewered on a sharp boulder edge that dipped in to make the hole.

Cloud and Aeris came running up past the deactivated boulders. "Vincent! Are you all right?!" Cloud asked.

"Oh, you're hurt!" Aeris cried.

Panting a little still, I raised my good arm and saw that it had been scraped  and grazed red all up my forearm. My face had been grazed too when I dived onto the rough stone floor under the boulders, but again I hadn't noticed.

"Oh. I didn't feel them. It's nothing." I said, wiping the small amount of blood from the worst scratches onto my slightly ripped cloak.

Cloud shook his head, looking at me carefully. He was wondering why I didn't notice the injuries, even though they were very small, they should have stung like mad. But I genuinely hadn't noticed until they'd told me, and I think it disturbed them a little. Aeris went quiet, before suggesting we went on further.

Many things happened from then until we reached the Hieroglyphic room; we saw a vision of Sephiroth attacking Tseng... so Sephiroth was in the Temple, and that's how Tseng was wounded so badly.

We passed through a hall of the Time Guardian, who safeguarded many priceless treasures, such as a special ribbon that protected against all illnesses and venoms, and a powerful staff for Aeris to use.

Then we had to chase another Spirit Body around a maze until we caught him and he opened the door to the High Chamber for us.

This was it.

With a final check of our armour and materia, we stepped through the door into the dark guttering torchlight.

There were many murals and hieroglyphics on the walls, the flickering torches giving a sinister darkly golden glow to the room and the pictures.

Cloud looked around himself. "I know he's here... SEPHIROTH!! Where are you?!" He cried.

He was replied instantly by a flash of cold light and a gust of wind.

A ghost-like apparition of Sephiroth hovered in the air before Cloud, his arms clutching to his chest and his pale eyelids closed. "So cold..." He whispered. "I am always by your side." With those enigmatic words, there was another flash and Sephiroth was gone.

We ran further into the chamber and found him again further up, leaning upon his Masamune and staring at one wall painting in particular that stood out from all the others.

"Splendid."

We took a long look at the mural he was examining with such keen interest. Something falling from the sky, terror, fire and destruction...

I was staring at the mural. There was something horribly foreboding about the mural, something fateful and significant... I didn't notice that Sephiroth had disappeared again until Aeris tugged at my arm and I was pulled out of myself again. We ran all the way to the apex of the chamber and found Sephiroth once more, lying down against the Great Altar. There was something final in his eyes.

"Mother... it's almost time..." He whispered and then slowly rose to his feet.

Sephiroth began again to speak of his "becoming one with the planet". He explained to us that when a planet is injured, it gathers spirit energy around the wound to heal itself. The larger the wound, the more spirit energy is gathered.

"But what if there was an injury that threatened the very life of the planet?" Sephiroth asked darkly, plunging his sword into the ground at our feet to mark his point. "Think of how much energy would be gathered! And at the centre of that energy will be me. I will meld with it all! By doing this, I will cease to exist as I am now, only to be reborn as a God to rule over every soul!"

I was shaking my head. I couldn't stop shaking my head. It was so wrong... so wrong... could this evil creature, this insane monster have really come from Lucrecia?

It was clearer than ever to me now that Sephiroth must be destroyed. Yet still, inwardly I quailed at the thought of that moment when I must pull the trigger on him for the final time.

But that moment was not now. When I looked up again, Sephiroth was gone.

Aeris and Cloud were examining a strange looking device atop the Altar.

"Let's see... B.L.A.C.K.... M.A.T.E.R.I.A."

Aeris nodded. "Black Materia!"

After a while of examining the Altar and Aeris communicating with the floating spirits of the Ancients, we learned that the Temple itself was the black materia and it could only be gleaned by someone solving a series of puzzles inside the temple to make it shrink after each puzzle, until it would be small enough to fit into the palm of one's hand. The catch to this, however, was that the person inside the temple solving the puzzles would grow smaller too, but the final puzzle when solved would make the temple morph into its final materia form, thus crushing the person inside.

"I guess the Ancients didn't want dangerous magic to be gotten hold of so easily..."

"Then I guess it's safe here?"

"No, Sephiroth has got lots of flunkies that he would gladly sacrifice to get hold of this thing. We have to find a way to get it out, it's safer with us!"

"But how..?"

Just then, we received a call on the PHS from Cait Sith.

Of course! Cait Sith had a stuffed animal body that he controlled from some as yet unknown location, he could solve the puzzles from inside the temple.

As long as he could be trusted of course...

After only a moments deliberation, it became apparent that we really had no other choice. Cloud agreed to let Cait Sith help.

As we were leaving, Cloud stopped in front of the wall painting of something falling from the sky, the one that had stirred feelings of ill-omen in all of us.

He began to act very strange... laughing, and saying something about calling "Meteor".

I didn't understand what he was saying, he was laughing to himself and making obscure gestures with his hands as if he had gone mad.

"Cloud!" Aeris shook his shoulder.

"I remember now! I remember my way!" He said, nodded, then looked at Aeris. "Hmm? What is it?"

Aeris shook her head and smiled at him. "It's nothing, Cloud." She looked at me, nodding her head meaningfully. "Right! It's nothing!" She said, more at me I think.

We took a further examination of the mural before us. Aeris explained what the Ancients must have told her...

"It's the Ultimate Destructive Magic, Meteor... It finds small drifting planets with its magic... and then collides with them! This planet might get wiped out entirely..."

It was vital then, that we must not let Sephiroth get his hands on it.

We fought our way to the exit through the hall of the Time Guardian.

As we entered the room with the final door, something was amiss. A sense of uneasiness passed through all three of us and we exchanged apprehensive glances.

There was a resonance within the room, a heat tingling through the air, thick and tangible... almost like a heartbeat...

Cloud stepped up to the door and laid his hand upon it. "It's... warm..." He said and turned to look at Aeris and myself.

I felt my eyes widen slightly as I saw the very wall behind Cloud start to stretch and bulge, until a hideous demonic face emerged from the living wall... It stretched out two huge long spindly arms towards Cloud.

"Cloud, behind you!" Aeris shouted. Cloud span around and stumbled over backwards when he saw the huge beast coming out of the wall as if the stone were made of water!

He rolled out of the way a split second before a huge claw crashed down onto the space where he had been half a second ago with a terrible screech as its claws scraped the stone floor.

"What the hell is this?!" Cloud shouted as we all readied ourselves for the fight.

Aeris closed her eyes and cast Sense on the creature. "It is... called Demon Gate. It will be a difficult fight... He is very strong."

We'll see about that, I thought as Cloud made the first strike on the creature. Cloud returned and the creature instantly retaliated by suddenly rushing at us and slamming us all back.

Aeris immediately cast cure on all of us before I took a deathblow shot to the creature with my silver rifle.       

This dealt a sizeable amount of damage, making the creature roar in pain. It was not happy. Pounding the ceiling above me with its fist, Demon Gate sent a shower of sharp stalactites raining down on me.

I almost felt the pain. I mean to say, I felt the impact, and I felt the damage I sustained, which almost tricked my mind into believing I felt the pain. But before I had much chance to think about it, I felt my body begin to heat up. I became short of breath and gripped my chest; I felt my body begin to change.

My limit break! I hated them. Another lovingly given gift from my tormentor Hojo... I looked over at Cloud and Aeris as I began to convulse into my transformation. They didn't seem bothered; they thought it wasn't me. They thought I merely summoned the beast, they did not know the beast was actually me. I thought it best that they keep that notion, I must seem abnormal enough without that secret being revealed.

I vanished for a moment before reappearing as Galian beast.

The rest of the battle I cannot tell you; for I have no memory of what occurs during my transformation. When I regained my own mind, I staggered to my feet and looked around. We were outside the temple, and it seemed to be glowing with a black resonance. Then, impossibly it began to shrink before our eyes, further and further down into the earth where its labyrinths had once been concealed, until there was nothing but a tiny shining black gem at the bottom of a large pit that had housed the temple's lower levels.

I watched Aeris and Cloud begin to climb their way down to the newly formed Black Materia, as I kept a lookout up top.

Then, Sephiroth appeared.

He flew down to Cloud and Aeris, and they were speaking to him, but I couldn't hear... I ran around the edges of the pit, looking down, not quite knowing what to do. I made sure I was ready to go down there and help out if combat started... but I did not expect what happened next.

Cloud... gave the black materia to Sephiroth. Handed it over to him like he owed it to him...

I stood, shocked, as the bizarre scene unfolded. Sephiroth duly vanished with a resounding chuckle, his coveted treasure in his grasp.

Cloud seemed to regain himself for a moment.

"Aeris... what have I... what have I done?"

Aeris tried to calm him. "It's okay Cloud... it's not your fault..."

"Urrrgh!!... what have I DONE?!"

Cloud lashed out and began to beat upon Aeris in his rage at himself!

Another Cait Sith toy moogle came hopping up as I immediately leapt down there.

"Howdy, I'm Cait Sith #2! Right pleased to meet y'all!" He saw what was going on down below. "Oops, looks like I came at a bad time!"

"Cloud!!" I shouted, and struck his face hard with the back of my metal claw, instantly knocking him senseless.

I put my hand on Aeris' shoulder. "Aeris, are you all right?"

She had tears in her eyes. "Yes, Vincent... I'm fine... let's get out of here, please..."

I carried Cloud to the moored Tiny Bronco and we all set off to meet the rest of the team at the appointed meeting place: Gongaga.

As we arrived in the village, Barret and Tifa came running up. "Vincent! Aeris! What happened?!" Tifa called, looking at Cloud, who was slung over my shoulder.

"A minor accident. Nothing much. He was knocked out, he'll be fine." I looked at Aeris, who nodded me a thank-you.

"Tifa, Barret... do you mind if I go straight to bed? I've got a lot I'd like to think about, alone..."

"Of course, Aeris. You go." Tifa smiled as Aeris ran off to the inn. I saw Aeris look back at us once before she disappeared into the building.

Little did I know, then, that would be the last time I ever saw her again.