"Sephiroth!" shouted Cloud, both surprised and alarmed.
"So, you've finally arrived here at last. Being here brings back memories, doesn't it? Are you going to participate in the Reunion?" asked Sephiroth.
"I don't even know what this reunion is!" snapped Cloud.
"Jenova will be at the Reunion. Jenova will join the Reunion, becoming a calamity from the skies," said Sephiroth.
"Jenova…a calamity from the skies? You mean that she wasn't an Ancient?" asked Cloud, more surprised than ever.
"I see…I don't think that you have the right to participate after all. I will go North, past Mount Nibel. If you wish to find out what the Reunion is, then follow…" said Sephiroth.
"Wait, Sephiroth, we need to talk," protested Vincent, stepping in front of Cloud and towards Sephiroth, not worried or afraid at all.
"Who are you?" asked Sephiroth, very surprised and for a moment taken aback.
"My name is Vincent Valentine. And I knew your mother," replied Vincent.
"How could you have known my mother!? My mother is Jenova!!" shouted Sephiroth.
"No, that is not true. Your mother was a beautiful woman named Lucrecia," said Vincent.
"You're lying!!! I am Sephiroth!!! I will be at the reunion with my real mother, Jenova!!! If you wish to follow, go north past Mount Nibel!!! There I will become one with the Planet!!!" roared Sephiroth, angrily.
This did not affect Vincent at all, and he calmly took another step forwards.
"Your real mother's name is Lucrecia, and I am not lying to you. Are you manly enough to accept the truth or are you just a coward hiding behind Jenova?" questioned Vincent.
Sephiroth suddenly stopped pacing. His cold green eyes glared hard at Vincent in anger, and the air seemed to be ripping all around him.
"What did you say!?" snarled Sephiroth, in a dangerous voice that made everyone but Vincent flinch, as Sephiroth gripped hard on the hilt of his Masumane sword in anger and murderous rage.
"I said, you are a coward. Do you really think that Jenova is the answer to all of your questions? How long do you think you can run? And how far? I'm offering you a chance to see the truth, so accept it if you still have the slightest bit of common sense left in you," said Vincent, sharply, not even the slightest bit afraid or worried.
"Shut up! I have found the truth, I have read the notes right down here, and I know the truth! As a Cetra, I have the right to take back what belongs to me, and my mother!" shouted Sephiroth, angrily.
"Jenova is not an Ancient, and neither are you. It is nothing but a powerful, evil, hideous monster. And it is not your mother," said Vincent.
"If you don't shut up, traitor, then I will have to kill you," said Sephiroth, stepping forwards, with his long, sharp Masumane sword glittering in his hand.
Vincent fell silent and shook his head in sadness and pity, but not fear.
"Sephiroth, just put your sword down right now, and listen to me," said Vincent, patiently.
"Reunion? Calamity from the skies?" said Cloud, confused.
Without warning, Sephiroth suddenly threw a green Materia with great, unbelievable force, straight at Cloud.
The Materia hit Cloud hard in the stomach, and it knocked all the wind out of him, knocking him hard to the hard stone floor, and sending him sliding across it.
"Cloud!" shouted Tifa, rushing to his side in alarm.
"I'm fine…he just…caught me off guard…that's all," gasped Cloud, slowly getting back up, a hand to his chest.
Then Sephiroth flew straight past them, and out of the room, and out of the mansion. Cloud got back up, and picked up the Materia that Sephiroth had just thrown at him. It was a Destruct Materia.
The group remained silent as they trudged up the stone stairs that spiralled into the darkness, making it hard to see each individual step they were to take. As they reached the top of the stairs, arriving at the entrance of the mansion, a screeching noise was suddenly heard.
Barret yelled out in surprise as they were all suddenly bombarded by a hoard of monsters that appeared to be identical to each other. They were all on their four legs, and could leap great distances with the spidery and abnormally elongated limbs that they had.
Three rows of razor sharp teeth vilely decorated their circular mouths, and a single, green-tinted claw decked the tips of their long, vine-like tails. They were all a discoloured black and appeared to have no eyes, yet they could sense anything moving just as well.
One made a leap for Barret, its jaws opened wide, only to be met by several hordes of bullets as Barret opened fire on it with his gun-arm. It fell to the ground, dead, its body filled with bloody bullet wounds.
"Shit, what the heck are these things?" gasped Cloud as he narrowly avoided one of the creatures' claws. He sliced through it with the sharp blade of his sword, killing it instantly.
Vincent calmly shot each individual creature that came after him, one after another with his shotgun, and soon there were a pile of the dead creatures bodies that he had killed.
"They seem to be a mutated form of a type of normal creature. Probably another one of Hojo's lab experiments, they seemed to have escaped from his laboratory hidden deep within the library. Be extra careful with them, they're likely to be stronger than most monsters," said Vincent.
Red XIII, Cait Sith and Yuffie did not seem to be having a difficult time handling them, as they were aiding each other, and they were each easily able to kill the creatures in one attack by themselves. Aeris, on the other hand, did seem to have some trouble with them.
Aeris quickly tried casting a bolt of lighting on two of the creatures, only to have them come running toward her, unfazed by it. Helplessly, she swung at them feebly, with her quarterstaff, coming to realize that magic had no effect on them.
She managed to kill one of them by hitting it on the head and breaking its skull with the blunt of her metal staff, but the other successfully launched itself at her body.
With white claws on one of its limbs, it swept across her mid-section, causing the fabric of her dress to rip horizontally as the creature slashed through her side with its claws.
Aeris cried out in pain as she felt the claws sink deeply into her side. Cloud noticed this with horror, and ran to aid her, slashing his sword at the creature and decapitating it in a millisecond, killing it instantly.
Aeris crumbled to the ground, her hand grasping the deep wound that was now bleeding. Cloud caught her before she hit the floor, and lifted her up.
Meanwhile, Tifa was fending very well on her own, without anyone's help. She pummelled each creature's horribly deformed body with her fists and kicks, killing each of them. Noticing Aeris' cry for help, she turned briefly to catch a glimpse of what was going on.
The fighting had ceased, and piles of mutilated, dead bodies of many creatures now occupied the room. Everyone seemed to be okay, except Aeris, who now lay in Cloud's arms. He carried her away, and the rest of the group followed him. Aeris was still conscious, but was in serious pain.
Quickly, Cloud got out a potion and gave it to Aeris, which fully healed her wound and injuries. Aeris got back up, as the others walked towards her and Cloud.
"You're falling behind everyone else, Aeris. All of us except you were able to finish off all our opponents without any problems. That's not very progressive," said Cloud.
Aeris said nothing and looked away, slightly embarrassed by what had happened. She knew that, unlike the others, she was no trained warrior, and was weaker than them both physically and defensively.
Cloud, Aeris, and the others soon quickly all walked out of the Shinra Mansion, but Sephiroth was nowhere to be seen in Nibelheim, having left without a trace. Remembering what Sephiroth had said, they left Nibelheim, and they went to Mount Nibel, where Sephiroth had said he was flying past.
When they reached the vast, massive mountains of Mount Nibel, they continued their journey, and travelled across the long path through Mount Nibel.
Tifa shuddered as she slowly made her way up the path behind Cloud. The bitterly cold wind that blew in during the winter was rather early this year, snow was already starting to cap the tallest mountain peaks.
Along the path that went around the mountains, even the toughest mountains were slowly dying as the life was sucked out of them to power the town below. Once, the mountains had not looked so dry and ancient.
They were once covered in fresh green grass and entire meadows and valleys full of all sorts of flowers. Never before had she seen life taken from something so quickly. The mountains just looked so…
"Withered. I've always thought they were getting withered too. But there's not much we can do about it now, except stop Shinra, and hope for the best once the Reactors are shut down," said Cloud.
Tifa missed a step in surprise, and barely managed to catch herself before she could fall down on her face. That was the first time Cloud had mentioned much of anything besides Sephiroth for some time now.
What was going on inside that head of his anyway? Tifa wasn't sure about what he was thinking, but she was sure that she'd get dizzy just trying to figure it out.
It seemed as though he was acting stranger and stranger the closer they were getting to Sephiroth, as though, mentally, Cloud was going very far away, and that spooked Tifa, she was really getting worried about him, but when she tried to voice this concern back at Cosmo Canyon, Cloud didn't seem to understand what she had meant, so she simply kept quiet about it now.
"I need a hot bath. And a decent meal, and a change of clothes, and a soft bed," said Aeris, not liking the tough walk through the mountains at all.
"We'll get all that and more once we get around the mountains and arrive at Rocket Town," said Cloud.
Everyone and everything was then quiet for a while as Cloud led them across Mount Nibel, while being occupied in his own thoughts.
Shinra, or Sephiroth, which was worse? They both were, in their own ways. The Shinra simply wanted to rule the world, while Sephiroth seemed to want Shinra destroyed because he wanted to rule the world himself.
It seemed to be the best explanation of why Sephiroth was determined to stop the Shinra from gaining total control of everything.
Cloud's mind continued to wander as he led the others through the mountains, across the old rope bridge, and through the caves full of Mako towards the old Reactor.
The huge doors had long been sealed off from the public, but the Reactor itself had been set on full-auto. It would continue to drain the life from the area until it was either shut down or completely destroyed.
The old Reactor didn't hold much meaning to Cloud, anyway. He shoved the memories that had returned back into his head and walked past the Reactor, towards the back of Mt. Nibel above a small cliff. There were five chutes just in front of them.
"Right there. There's the exit," said Tifa, pointing down the cliff, and just ahead of it at the bottom was the way out of Mount Nibel and the way to Rocket Town.
"Then let's get a move on!" replied Barret, impatiently.
"Umm, how do we get down there?" asked Yuffie, staring down the cliff edge nervously.
"Obviously, through these," replied Red XIII, moving towards the five chutes.
"No way!! They're probably all rusty and full of cobwebs!!" complained Yuffie.
"Well, you could always jump," said Cait Sith.
Yuffie looked down the cliff nervously again, then walked over to one of the chutes, grumbling, and then slid down it to reach the bottom of the cliff.
Cloud then slid down, followed by the rest of the group. In no time at all, they had all reached the bottom and were standing only a few meters away from the exit.
"All right, let's go," Cloud said.
Sparks and fire suddenly erupted from in front of them as a huge monstrous scorpion suddenly crashed into them, and they all were quickly tossed out onto the ground.
Quickly getting back up to his feet, Cloud pulled out his sword and stood in front of the monster, where a dangerously close swipe from the scorpion's tail nearly took his head off, but he ducked just in time, while the others got up and stood nearby Cloud, in front of the huge monster.
It had six scorpion-like legs, two scaly tails and its skin was dark blue and yellow. It had a long, pointy horn, red eyes and sharp claws on each of its six feet. This monster was called the Materia Keeper. Cloud and the others realised they had to fight it in order to leave Mount Nibel.
Vincent could also battle it as well, as he used a shotgun as his weapon, which he had also used back when he was a Turk about thirty years ago, and had Materia equipped to slots in the shotgun as well.
Noticing this, Cloud quickly pulled out the red Odin Summon Materia from his pocket and threw it to Vincent, who caught it at once, and looked down at the Summon Materia.
"We found it from the safe along with the basement key that freed you, so I figure it would only be fitting that this should be yours instead," said Cloud.
Vincent nodded in gratitude, and quickly placed the Odin Summon Materia in one of this shotgun slots, and aimed his shotgun at the Materia Keeper as it advanced upon them.
Tifa ran up to the Materia Keeper and punched and kicked it hard, but her blows didn't seem to have any affect on the Materia Keeper's tough skin.
Vincent then summoned Odin, using the summoning Materia that Cloud had found after he opened the safe in the Shinra mansion. All of them watched in startled amazement as Odin suddenly appeared in front of the Materia Keeper. Odin was a knight with yellow skin, red eyes, and two horns on its head.
Odin was on a six-legged white horse, and Odin carried a big, pink spear in one of its hands. Odin suddenly threw the spear up into the sky, and after a moment, the spear fell back down, straight towards the Materia Keeper. The spear hit the Materia Keeper straight in the middle of it and vanished, just as Odin (and his horse) disappeared.
But the spear had left a nasty wound in the Materia Keeper, and it shrieked in agony, as its dark blood dripped from its wound onto the ground. Snapping out of their startled and amazed trance, Cloud and the others quickly reacted again.
Green light burst from the ground at Tifa's feet as a ball of ice with sharp icicles on the end of it appeared out of nowhere and struck the Materia Keeper hard, leaving it with many scratches, bruises and marks.
Tifa ran up to the Materia Keeper and punched and kicked it hard, but once again, her blows still didn't seem to have any affect on the Materia Keeper's tough skin.
Cloud ran up to the Materia Keeper, raised his sword, and slashed it at the Materia Keeper, but the Materia Keeper was able to deflect Cloud's sword with one of its claws, and was therefore not affected.
Vincent quickly raised his shotgun and fired straight at the Materia Keeper before it could react against it. The bullet hit one of the Materia Keeper's red eyes and therefore took its eye out, greatly injuring it. The Materia Keeper shrieked in agony, as its dark blood poured from its ruined eye.
Roaring angrily, the Materia Keeper suddenly lowered his head so its horn was pointed straight at Vincent, then the Materia Keeper charged forwards so the horn was heading straight for Vincent, ready to cause an impact.
Vincent quickly tried to move aside, but he didn't have enough time to react to get fully out of the way, so the Materia Keeper's horn slashed him across the side. Vincent fell to the ground, badly injured.
Tifa ran up to the Materia Keeper, and punched and kicked it hard, but once again, her blows still didn't seem to have any affect on the Materia Keeper's tough skin, even though it was wounded and badly injured by Odin's attack.
The Materia Keeper suddenly charged straight towards Tifa, and it kicked her several times with its legs, breaking her ribs, nose and legs. Tifa screamed in pain, and fell to the ground.
Seeing that Tifa and Vincent were both badly injured and wounded, Cloud decided to act quickly, grasping a Materia equipped to his sword, as green light burst from the ground beneath his feet. A circle of energy suddenly appeared out of nowhere, and fully healed both Tifa and Vincent's injuries and wounds. Both of them quickly got back up.
Tifa ran up to the Materia Keeper and punched and kicked it hard, but once again, her blows still didn't seem to have any affect on the Materia Keeper's tough skin, even though it was wounded and badly injured.
Vincent raised his shotgun and fired straight at the Materia Keeper. The bullet hit the Materia Keeper straight in the other eye and took it out, blinding it. The Materia Keeper shrieked in agony and fell to the ground, very nearly dead and finished.
But suddenly, green light burst from the ground at the Materia Keeper's scorpion-like feet as a big circle of energy appeared out of nowhere, and fully healed all of the Materia Keeper's wounds and injuries. The Materia Keeper instantly got back up, and was no longer injured at all.
Cursing at this, Cloud ran up to the Materia Keeper, raised his sword, and slashed it at the Materia Keeper, but the Materia Keeper was able to deflect Cloud's sword with one of its claws, and was therefore not affected.
Tifa ran up to the Materia Keeper, and punched and kicked it hard, but once again, her blows still didn't seem to have any affect on the Materia Keeper's tough skin.
Vincent raised his shotgun and fired straight at the Materia Keeper. The bullet hit one of the Materia Keeper's scorpion-like legs, and broke it. The Materia Keeper shrieked in pain.
Growling and snarling angrily, the Materia Keeper roared furiously, and its vicious eyes seemed to glow darkly as a small yellow pyramid suddenly appeared out of nowhere, and struck Cloud, Vincent and Tifa hard, knocking them all to the ground and badly injuring and bruising them, and they were only barely able to get back up.
Green light burst from the ground at Cloud's feet as a circle of magical energy appeared out of nowhere and fully healed himself, Vincent and Tifa, and all of their injuries and bruises.
Tifa ran up to the Materia Keeper, and punched and kicked it hard, but once again, her blows still didn't seem to have much affect on the Materia Keeper's tough skin.
Vincent quickly raised his shotgun, and fired straight at the Materia Keeper. The bullet hit another one of the Materia Keeper's scorpion-like legs, and broke it at once. The Materia Keeper shrieked in pain, louder and more horrible than ever this time, clearly in agony and murderous rage.
Red light suddenly burst from the ground at Cloud's feet as he swung his sword back, and suddenly fired a green beam of energy from the end of his sword, straight at the Materia Keeper, hitting it hard and exploding, leaving the Materia Keeper with many bloody wounds and scorch marks.
The Materia Keeper shrieked in great, terrible agony, and fell to the rocky ground, barely able to even move at all, let alone get back up.
Red light suddenly burst from the ground at Tifa's feet as she ran up to the Materia Keeper, and she punched it several times with powerful blows, knocking the Materia Keeper around a lot, and leaving it with many injuries and bruises across its whole monstrous body.
Then, Tifa did a somersault, and kicked the Materia Keeper hard in mid-somersault with both her legs, dazing and stunning it for a while, as well as injuring it.
Then, Tifa quickly did a handstand and spun around several times very quickly, hitting the Lost Number hard with her legs, breaking its huge ribs. The Materia Keeper shrieked in pain and unbearable agony.
Cloud ran up to the Materia Keeper, raised his sword, and slashed it at the Materia Keeper, this time slashing across the side of the Materia Keeper, leaving it with a large bloody sword wound at its side.
Roaring angrily, the Materia Keeper suddenly lowered its head so that its horn was pointed straight at Cloud, and then the Materia Keeper charged forwards so the horn was heading straight for Cloud.
Cloud managed to raise his sword in front of him so the horn hit the sword instead of Cloud, but the force of the Materia Keeper's impact was still enough to send Cloud flying backwards onto the ground, hitting it with hard force.
Enraged by this, Tifa quickly ran up to the Materia Keeper, and punched and kicked it very hard, and this time she knocked it around quite a bit, dazing and stunning it for a while, as well as badly bruising it.
Vincent quickly raised his shotgun, and fired straight at the Materia Keeper. The bullet went straight through the middle of the Materia Keeper, and shot straight through its dark, evil heart, leaving a gaping hole in its chest, and killing the Materia Keeper instantly, as it fell, dead, to the ground.
After recovering from this battle, Cloud and the others then soon walked out of the cave, out of Mount Nibel into the fields outside it. Then they travelled across the vast fields until they eventually reached Rocket Town.