CHAPTER 7

Day had broken over Nibelhiem, as obviously evidenced by the Sun peeking up over the mountains, ready to go about its normal routine of gradually coming up over the sky before retreating back below the Earth. Tifa slowly opened her eyes, seeing Zack laid out practically beneath her. Their arms were positioned around one another in a cuddly embrace. Tifa arched up slowly, yawning. She gave Zack a slight shake...

"Hey... Hey Zack," She muttered softly in between yawns, "...wake up."

Zack seemed to mutter something, but Tifa couldn't tell what he may of been trying to say. As it was, Zack simply turned his head away from the younger girl. Tifa knew they had to get back to town before her father noticed she was missing, and Zack laying there was not helping her cause. She tried everything to wake Zack up: Holding his nose, poking various pressure points, and even slapping him. But Zack remained stubbornly asleep.

"WAKE UP DAMMIT!" Tifa finally yelled into Zack's ear. No response presented itself. Tifa eyed Zack angrily, wondering if maybe he was actually awake and just trying to be annoying. She at last resorted to pulling up on Zack's hair.

Zack awoke with a start and a yell the moment Tifa's hand touched his mane, pushing her off, rolling away and getting up into a defensive position.

"Hey, what's the big idea?" Tifa asked angrily, picking herself up.

"Sorry," Zack replied sheepishly, "It's just that we SOLDIERS are... sensitive about our hair," he explained, brushing his hands through his hair.

"Well, we gotta get back into town..." Tifa said slowly, thumbing back towards the small village. As they walked, Tifa's mind raced for possible excuses and alibis. If her father saw them coming back from the fields together in the slightly deshelved state they were both in (messy hair, wrinkled clothes, and the like), he'd certainly assume they were engaged in far less innocent activities than they had actually been engaged in, and he'd kill them both!

Tifa's father was waiting for them at the town gates, crossing his arms and giving them a very unfriendly stare. His expression lightened up just a bit when he noticed Zack was limping slightly and had a black eye. "What in the lord's name happened to you, boy?"

"Your daughter beat me up, sir," Zack admitted humbly.

Mister Lockheart gave both youngsters cynical, analyzing stares for what seemed like an eternity. Tifa was offering all sorts of excuses backing up Zack's claim, but he wasn't interested in listening to his daughters supposed lies. But, in the end, he determined that they hadn't done anything TOO bad. He had no real evidence they had even done anything. For all he knew, Tifa had been kicking the crap out of the SOLDIER for the past several hours. The man decided to put his usual suspicion and uneasiness aside and give the two the benefit of the doubt. Zack obviously hadn't forced himself on the girl, Tifa wouldn't of been walking with him then. And also, he figured he had raised Tifa to be a better person than to engage in immoral activates of her own accord, so he had no choice but to trust them. For now.

He eyed Zack a moment more. "I thought I told you to stay away from my daughter," he stated flatly.

"Uh, well I..."

"Shut up. Tifa..." Mister Lockheart said, "Home, now."

Tifa obediently bowed her head a bit and started walking, her father right behind her. "And what did I tell you about dressing like that?"

Zack could not hear the rest of their conversation, as he was just standing there by the gates for a while. He decided he should get back to the Inn and check on Sephiroth.

When the young SOLDIER got back into his room, he saw the MP eating breakfast. Juice, toast, bacon, and eggs from the look of it. He saw Zack come in and pushed a plate over to the other side of the table for his friend-slash-superior officer. Zack sat down in front of his plate, a smile forming on his face.

"Food! I NEED it!" He exclaimed excitedly. The MP smiled a bit at Zack's enthusiasm and shook his head.

"So where were ya?" the MP asked.

"Uhh, out for a walk," Zack replied between bites.

"What's with the black eye?" The MP inquired after he swallowed a mouth full of food.

Zack took a bite and finished before responding, while trying to think up a good lie. "I ran into a monster... wish I'd brought my sword," Zack managed to say. He felt bad for lying, but he had a good reason.

The MP seemed to accept the answer and continued to finish his breakfast.

"Sephiroth wake up yet?" Zack asked.

"Nuh uh."

"Go see if he's feeling a little better, would ya?" Zack requested. The MP shrugged and walked out the door.

Zack continued eating, and had to admit the great part about being out on assignment like this was the great food locals would cook up and provide free of charge. Well, Shinra still had to pay for it, but none of the money came out of Zack's pocket, so he didn't bother to make the distinction.

"ZACK!"

Zack's eyes widened in surprise as he spun around in his chair. "WHA?" he tried to yell out, a bit of egg retreating from his mouth.

The MP ran to the door and peeked his head inside the room, "Come quick, Sephiroth's gone!"

Zack swallowed what was left of the food in his mouth, waited a moment, and took a sip of juice. He spit the juice out in a delayed response to the MP's words. "Whaaat?!" The young SOLDIER leapt out of his chair and charged into the room Sephiroth had claimed the night before.

Even though light was coming in through the windows, the room seemed eerily dark. Large amounts of blood lined the walls, and large sword marks marred the wall. There was not a single piece of furniture which had survived... whatever had happened. There was a carved, perfect circle in the middle of the room, with five unlit candles surrounding it, a few of them knocked over.

"Y'know, I always warned Sephiroth that demon-worshiping was gonna come back to bite him in the ass one day, but would he listen? Noooo..." Zack tried joking.

"Shut up dude, this's serious!" the MP retorted. Zack nodded, knowing his friend was right. "So what do we do?"

Zack started to think, but nothing came to mind. "How did this happen, didn't you hear anything?!"

"No man, I was asleep the whole time!"

"Okay, okay, lemme think..."

"What happened back at the reactor?" the MP asked. Zack's eyes practically lit up.

"The reactor, that's it!" the SOLDIER replied, snapping his fingers.

"Huh?"

"Back at the reactor, Sephiroth started freaking out because he started thinking he was created to be like some sort of monster or something," Zack explained. "He's probably gone back there!"

"Well, what if he didn't?" the MP asked. Zack's revere was suddenly broken off.

"Uhhh... Okay, okay. I'll check the town, you have the guide take you back up t..."

"NO!" The MP blurted out, holding out his arms while shaking his hands and head.

"... Okay, okay, fine. I'll have her take me back there, you check out the town, maybe he's lurking in an alley or something," Zack said, changing his mind. "Oh, and, we don't wanna start a panic, so don't tell anyone what's up, okay?"

Zack ran back into the other room and quickly changed back into his official Shinra SOLDIER clothes. He couldn't shake the feeling that something was very...

...VERY...

Wrong.

Zack jogged over to Tifa's house, still fully aware of what her father had said to him not fifteen minutes earlier. He knocked on the door and tapped his foot waiting for a response. He peered inside the window, and it appeared as though no one was home. Zack was about to curse his rotten luck when suddenly some noises caught his attention. He followed them back behind Tifa's house, where she was training with her sensei, Zangan. He seemed to be demonstrating some kind of multi-part combo attack.

"Tifa, hey Tifa!" Zack yelled out, jogging over to them. He noticed that Tifa had changed her clothes into something a bit more "Becoming" and "Respectable". A loose, long-sleeved shirt along with some large cargo pants.

"What do you want?" Tifa replied, trying to hold back her current contempt for the older boy. He had gotten her grounded for two weeks... but that wasn't 100% his fault, now was it? Maybe, maybe not, but she still needed someone to blame.

"I need your help. I've got to get back to the reactor..." Zack explained.

Zangan interjected, "And why would that be?"

"Uhhh, Shinra... business?" Zack replied weakly.

Tifa looked up at the SOLDIER and raised an eyebrow, "What are you up to?"

"Nothing, I swear! Sephiroth's gone and I... uh, er, I mean... shit."

"Sephiroth is missing?" Zangan pressed. Zack knew he couldn't lie now.

"Yeah, his room was a disaster area, and I dunno how long he's been gone and I think he's going crazy and I..."

"Okay, okay, shut up!" Tifa interrupted. Zack turned to Zangan...

"You wanna come with?" he asked the aging ninja.

"How do you know he went to the reactor?" Zangan questioned hesitantly.

"Just a hunch, really," Zack admitted.

"I shall stay in town and help look for him," the gray haired man responded. "Perhaps he is still here somewhere."

"Okay..." Zack said with a nod. He looked to Tifa, "You need anything else, or are you good like that?" he said, looking her up and down.

"No, lemme get some hiking boots on..." Tifa replied. She went inside the house, and yelled out for Zack to meet her upfront. The two men jogged around the side of the house, where Zack motioned over to the MP, who came jogging over. They talked for a minute, and decided that letting everyone know what was going on might actually be the best thing to do, as there would then be more people looking for the missing SOLDIER. Tifa came out of her house a moment later, ready to go.

Zack and Tifa started up the mountain trail and Zangan and the MP discussed their options...

"We looked for him for like, two days..." Zack explained. "Finally, we found him inside, go figure, the biggest building in the whole town."

"We called it the 'Shinra mansion'.." Tifa explained, "..because people from Shinra used to live there."

"I dunno why we didn't search there in the first place..." Zack said shyly.

"You said he wasn't in there because the gate was still locked," Tifa shot humorously.

"Well I didn't think he could jump a six-foot wall!" Zack retorted defensively.

"The lock was SLICED OFF, you twit!" Tifa reminded him. This drew a bit of laughter from the other AVALANCHE members.

"Yeah yeah yeah..." Zack mumbled, admitting defeat...

"Well at least we know where he is now!"

"You could have saved us two days by just CHECKING the LOCK in the first place!" Tifa spat out.

The MP stood between the two, trying to stop them from killing one another. Tifa's Father, Zangan, and the manager of the General Store were all gathered with the youngsters in front of the mansion's rusted, iron gates.

"Well how was I supposed to know he wanted to crib out in some dilapidated old death trap?! Besides, I JUST saw him in the window just now, you want me to go back in time and tell myself...""

"Children..." Zangan interrupted, peeling the two way from each other, much to the MP's relief, "Altercation will get us nowhere."

"I agree..." Mister Lockheart replied. "Tifa, go home, please. Leave this to the adults and trained professionals..."

"But Da..."

"No buts, young lady."

Tifa glared at her father angrily, and stomped off towards her home, grumbling.

Zack stood in front of everyone in awkward silence for a bit, and scratched his head. He nodded to the MP and they went past the gates and into the mansion while the others stayed outside. The mansion looked spooky enough on the outside... they did not want to know what it was like inside. An irrepressible feeling of foreboding surrounded this place of past sin...

Zack and the MP took in the "scenery". The house was all grayed out, with wall paper torn from the water-stained walls. What little furniture there was was broken or on it's way to being in such a state. Sunlight eerily came in through small holes in the roof and reflected off of broken shards of glass where windows once were. Beneath the two young men's feet was a worn, blackened carpet. A passage presented itself on each side, and broken, warped, wooden stairs leading to the upper level stood right in front of them.

"Where'd you see him?" the MP asked, an uneasiness settling in.

"He was down here somewhere... but just in case, check upstairs. I'll look down here," Zack responded.

The Mp did as he was told and dutifully jogged up the stairs, and went off to the left. Zack went left as well, and found a burned out room with papers and junk scattered about. None of this interested him, so he tried the next room. It was very large, and in reasonably good condition, compared to the rest of the small mansion. The white tile floor was betrayed in its color by several inches of dark dust, making it appear gray. A piano stood in the center of the semi circular room. which was also adorned by long-dead plants. Zack fiddled with the piano keys experimentally for a moment, and was delightfully surprised that it still worked. He played a few keys before continuing his search for the wayward general.

He followed a hallway which possessed a back door to a large balcony, but it was locked. Zack continued through the hall until he came into the kitchen, the odor of long forgotten and rotting food assaulting his nostrils with worse ferocity than a thousand SOLDIERS. Zack plugged his nose and closed his eyes, as if to prevent the smell from entering his body through them. He backed away, convinced that Sephiroth was not down here...

The MP searched the long hallway, but without success. He came to a small, circular room with many dead plants. It felt hot, and the MP saw a large glass dome overhead. He figured he was what used to be some kind of green house. He exited with no delay, knowing that he was on a search. He forced open the door to the next room, hoping that Sephiroth would be in there. But the young man's hopes faded as he came to a small room with nothing more than a fallen bookshelf and a safe.

The MP left it all alone and checked the room adjacent to the last. The door creaked and moaned, resisting its once operant motion, the rusted hinges excreting dust as friction forced the door to move. But it still opened easily nonetheless. Inside were a few beds, very old and a bit smelly, but not all that bad all things considered.

The MP sighed and started walking the other way, when a streak of silver hair turned a corner away from him on the opposite side of the hallway.

"Hey!" The MP shouted before going into a jog. However, a broken floor board caused the young man to trip, and he could only watch as Sephiroth entered a room which was barely visible around the corner. The MP pushed himself back up, and yelled down the stairs to his companion. "ZACK! I found him!" However, he had not needed to shout, as Zack was already on his way up the stairs. The MP dashed forward to catch up with Sephiroth...

Bed, stone column, window, bookcase.... But no Sephiroth. The Mp looked around, confused. That's when Zack came in right behind him...

"I SAW Sephiroth enter this room... but where'd he go?" The MP complained out loud. He entered the room and looked around cautiously.

"Maybe your brain was messing with ya..." Zack pointed out, walking into the room as well. He leaned against the circular stone column, holding his hands behind his head. "I mean, it's not like he vanished into..."

-CLICK!-

Something behind Zack moved, and his body was no longer supported by anything but air. "...a hidden passage... " he muttered lamely before falling backwards down the spiral, broken wooden steps...

"OW! Ow, gah! D'oh, ow, agh, ow, ow, OW!, ugh, ow, agh, fu-OW! eh, ow, gah, dammi-, OW, oof, gk, agh, g- OWWW!"

The MP found Zack laying in a heap at the bottom of the steps a few minutes later when he caught back up. "Don't you think walking would have been a bit more effective?" he quipped, knowing full well that Zack could take much worse.

"Shu'up and gimme a hand..." Zack muttered, raising his hand.

The MP started clapping in response.

Zack's hand stayed raised, but he formed it into a ball, turned it around and extended his middle finger. "That one's older than the ancients..."

The MP finally took Zack's arm and helped him up, as Zack brushed himself off. He drank a healing potion for good measure, and looked around.

They were in a place that seemed more like a cave than a basement. An eerie purple light which seemed to have no particular source was the only means of illumination for this dark cavern. The two walked forward, and stopped when they came to a door off to their left. Zack tried it, but it wouldn't budge. He could swear he almost heard a faint growl coming from within, but before he could investigate, the MP pointed out a light coming from beneath a second door a few feet away at the end of the "hall".

Zack tried the door knob, but the door slowly swung open just as he touched it. Sephiroth was inside what appeared to be a laboratory, which branched off into a library. Sephiroth was pacing around inside, absorbed with a book he held in his hands. A few more were scattered about, making Zack wonder just how fast Sephiroth could read... he had only been down here a minute more than them, right? Sephiroth began dictating the contents aloud for some reason, catching Zack's attention.

"...An apparently dead organism was found in a 2000 year old geological stratum. Professor Gast named that organism, Jenova..."

He stopped briefly to flip the page.

"November third, 1970. Jenova confirmed to be an ancient." He paused again as he looked over at the next entry...

"November 18th, 1970. 'JENOVA' confirmed to be an ancient. 'Jenova Project' aproved. Use of Mako Reactor Number one approved for use..."

The older warrior paused, and started to walk down the hallway to the main library. He began breathing heavily for a moment, but recomposed himself before his two young charges could take notice. "... Jenova project... My mother's name was Jenova. Could this be a coincidence?"

Something in Sephiroth's psyche told him no, and that there was more to this. Sephiroth began to shake his head in sadness... "Professor Gast.. why didn't you tell me anything?" he whispered to himself, "Why did you die?" Sephiroth bit his lip and repressed a tear in memory of the man who had been like a father to him, when neither of his parents had been present in his life. His mother had died when he was born, and what little he knew of her was told to him by Gast. And his father? Upon thinking about it, Sephiroth realized he either had no clue, or knew but did not want to face the awful truth.

Though it seemed as if perhaps the "truth" was worse than he ever imagined. It was starting to appear as though his parents were present in this very lab. A bunch of test tubes. Could it be...?

"Sephiroth?" Zack tried slowly, putting his hand on the general's arm lightly. However, something about Sephiroth began to scare the younger SOLDIER, and he withdrew his hand.

"Leave me alone," Sephiroth requested.

Zack looked over to the MP, who simply shrugged. Zack then glanced back at Sephiroth for a moment, and then proceeded to the exit, deciding to let the obviously troubled man have his wish, as it were.

The two army men decided to head back to the inn for the night, but they were in for an unpleasant surprise.

"Whaddya mean, 'No, we're not moving'?!" Zack blurted out.

"We're not going anywhere, and neither are you until we know there's no danger," Tifa's father replied.

"You had said it yourself, you believe Sephiroth has gone insane," Zangan pointed out. "We would like you to keep an eye on him."

"Great..." Zack muttered with a hint of contempt.