Chapter 2

His breath came raspy as he tried to make as little noise as possible. The ventilation he was crawling through stretched before him in what seemed like miles of silvery length. It's distance became even more prolonged in his mind the more he thought about how he didn't even know exactly where he was going. I could be crawling around in these things forever and still never get where I need to go.... Maybe this was a stupid idea. He stopped and leaned against the side of the vent. He was hunched and scrunched up to fit in the small square area. Sighing he clasped his arms around his knees. A moment latter he reached into his boot and extracted a photograph of a young women. Staring at it intently he though to himself, Surely this will be worth it. At that he replaced the photo into his boot and layback down on his stomach to continue crawling through the vents combat style.

Soon he came to a crossroad. "What the heck," he muttered to himself, and with a shrug he turned down the left tunnel. "One's as good as the next I suppose." As he was travelling down the tunnel his wristwatch suddenly lit up. Pausing, he pushed back his sleeve and squinted his eyes to see the reading. "9 o'clock." With confidence that most of ShinRa Inc's employees had gone home, he began to whistle a merry tune.

In the dark or dimly lit rooms below loud metallic like thuds and a lighthearted melody could be heard from above, had there been anyone there to hear.

"Sorry," Alex began as they stopped near the end of the corridor. "But what's so strange?" Matt did not turn to face his old friend, he couldn't take that look, the look he knew he'd get if he told her the truth about the meaning of her dream.
"It is strange... that we happen to be walking down a corridor like the one you described. That's all," he lied and wandered off in the opposite direction to Alex.
"Where are you going? The meeting's this way!" Alex hissed to Matt but it was no use. Matt strolled off alone, leaving Alex to find her way around the area.
Fine, she thought, be that way! She walked away from the corridor that seemed so familiar and headed to a small conference room to the left. As she entered, she noticed no one else was there.
"Strange..." she mumbled and sat down on a chair with the fabric all torn off it waiting for the others.

"Whistle while you work da da dunt da da da daummm da!" Echoes reverberating down the vents lead the way as Luke continued his pick-and-choose path through the tunnels. "Hm... I should be getting close...if I'm lucky," he reached down the neck of his shirt and pulled out a rabbit foot on a chain and began stroking it between his thumb and forefinger. "Right then...I'llll goooo...hm....This way!" He crawled through several more feet of ventilation when suddenly he heard a noise from below. He paused to listen. "Hm...," he leaned down and put his ear to the bottom of the vent. "Hm... I think I'm on to something." Muffled noises of struggling were reaching through to him. "There must be something...or someone, hopefully someone, down there." She crawled fast to an outlet in the vent where dim light was filtering through. "Ah ha!" he looked through the mesh screen. "Well I don't see anyone..."

Moments later the mesh screen fell to the floor and Luke dropped from the ceiling vent. "Man I'm good," he said as he looked over, smiling, to the struggling man on the table.

"Kai?" the sat man spoke, rubbing his forehead, fatigue etched across his face. "Kai!"

The other man, Kai, tore himself out of his thoughts and turned to face his companion. "Oh, what is it?" His voice was strained, but quiet, almost sighing.

"How longs it been now?"

Kai glanced at the clock. "14 hours. I think its time to go."

The second man stood up, stretching the sleep out of his muscles. "But what about him?"

Kai turned back to the window, staring into space, the dim moonlight reflecting off his sword. "He knows what to do. We'll no doubt see him again"