Disclaimer: I only own the stuff I created, plot included.

Timo (Ultimate Xdeath): Thank you for reviewing! Whenever I get the chance, I'll review your fics, as well! I'm actually almost done reading chapter two of that Seifer fic of yours. Forgot the name... Heh. MLC!

Chapter XXVI

Confusion is a Common Emotion

XxXxX

Through avarice, evil smiles; through insanity, it sings. --Anonymous

XxXxX

The door slid open, revealing the white-haired young man helping the half-conscious Al Bhed stand, behind them was the third member of their party: the younger brother of the Al Bhed who sacrificed his life for the group. The trio walked through the doorway and continued walking a few yards until the hall opened up to the left, right, and ahead of them: the hallway ahead of them was about three feet wide and continued a few yards, at the end they could see a metal door matching that of a cell door, and hallways to the left and right; the one to the left ended about twelve or so yards with a right turn; and the hallway to their right ended with a right and left turn.

When Baralai looked to the left, he noticed that there were three cells that could be seen: two on the right side of the wall and one on the left across from the first one of the right. The reason why he saw these three cells was because their metal doors were wide open. And when he looked to the right, four cells--two on the left, two on the right--had their doors wide open. As he looked left again, he got the distinct feeling that something was not right.

"What's…what's that smell…?" asked Gippal in a low voice, head slightly bowed. His wounds were bleeding badly, but they had nothing to stop the bleeding, and unfortunately they probably never will.

Sniffing the air, Baralai could smell what the injured Al Bhed could smell. "I…don't know, Gippal." It was a foreign smell to him--at least until the memories of the Den of Woe came back to him. "It's--"

"Pmuut," Little Guy finished for him, sniffing the air, a disgusted look on his tan features.

Baralai assumed the two of the were talking about the same thing. If he was remembering what little Al Bhed he knew correctly, the Al Bhed had just said "blood"; so yes, they were talking about the same thing.

--A shuffling sound coming from the--

--right! The Praetor and Little Guy looked quickly to their right, eyes snapping as wide as they could get.

There was a tall, bald man shuffling along toward them, his eyes gray and emotionless--much like the look on his pale face. What caught their attention the most was his clothing: loose, blood-stained tan shirt and pants. Blood was also all over his face, mostly around his mouth area.

"E drehg fa cuimt nih," spoke Little Guy, voice low and full of worry.

Even if the only word Baralai understood was RUN, he could pretty much guess what else was said. "Agreed," he said just as the blood-stained hands belonging to the man several yards away from them reached out toward them…then he suddenly charged.

The group turned and ran as fast as they could. Gippal couldn't move very fast on his own because the loss of a lot of blood was getting to him, but Baralai helped him run as much as he could. They passed the first two open cells, a short hallway to their right a few feet down--

Baralai froze in horror as he stared at the scene in the middle of that hallway. "Oh my--"

"Fryd dra ramm?" Gippal had looked up at the scene, as well, the smell they'd smelled before coming from the bloody and torn up human body lying in its own pool of blood. If it had once had a right arm, it didn't anymore. Oh wait--there that arm was, lying a foot or two away from the bloody mess of what had once been a while person.

The two were pushed onward by Little Guy, and they passed the bloody hall and continued straight ahead as fast as they could. When they turned right, out of the corner of his eye, Baralai saw the man turn into the hallway they had passed up. And then a second later he could hear the man rip what flesh was left on that body and eat it; Baralai ignored these sounds, blocked them out as best as he could as they ran straight down the long hallway. They'd passed up another long hallway with cells to their right, but they did not turn, but continued forward. The hall turned right a few yards down, and when they did, they slowed down a little, seeing nothing but another long hall.

The Praetor was slowly losing what faith he had; were they never going to get out of this place? He sighed softly, but did not stop walking. At least until yet another hallway came up on their left. It was a dead end, but there was a single door halfway down. "We'll check out that room down there, since it doesn't appear to be a cell," he said to Gippal and Little Guy, hoping Little Guy understood him clearly.

He appeared to have indeed understood him because they now walked down that dead-ended hallway, to the single door--

"It needs the cards," Baralai noticed, looking down at Gippal. The Al Bhed handed him both cards and Baralai tried them both, the second one working, unlocking the door with a click. He pushed the door open and helped the injured one walk inside the dark room.

Click, light flood the room, startling both he and Gippal. "Fryd dra ramm!" shrieked a surprised Gippal.

Little Guy stood next to a switch of some sort, him having obviously been the one who made the room light up. "Luum…" was all he said, looking around the large room. There were tables all lined up six in a row, bookcases full of small items behind the rows of tables, which had different kinds of weapons laid on them.

The scene before them surprised Baralai, but Little Guy walked forward, searching the tables. "Oui bnupypmo cruimt caynlr vun ouin faybuhc. E tuh'd ryja yha, pid E lyh ramb oui caynlr vun ouinc."

"He says we should look for our weapons and that he doesn't have one, but he'll help us look for ours," Gippal translated for the Praetor. Although injured, he left Baralai's side and shakily walked toward one of the tables and began searching. Baralai watched his injured friend for a few moments before searching for his own weapon.

Gippal whistled loudly. "Hey, think I found something." He walked over to one of the bookcases and pulled a bag off a shelf. "This is Paine's backpack."

He raised his eyebrows, shocked to hear this. "Oh? How do you know that?"

"See this?" The Al Bhed pointed to a spot on the front of the bag where stitches could be seen. "She was…attacked one day and the fiend kinda sliced into her…bag so she had to…uh…stitch it back up." He seemed to be ignoring the pain he had as he opened the bag and looked through it. "Her dresspheres and…and a potion…"

"Take it! It should heal your wounds!"

After swallowing the rather disgusting potion, the effects of it began to work as the claw wounds on his chest slowly disappeared, the open wounds closing up. The process itself was painful, but it was worth it. A few moments later, all proof to show that he had once been attacked was gone except for the tears in his shirt where the fiend sliced. "I feel gooood." Gippal stretched, feeling no more pain as he did so. Slinging the bag over his shoulder, he smiled. "Now that we know Dr. P is here, let's go find her."

Baralai held up his weapon in one hand, then raised the other to show that he had found the beautiful warrior's sword. "She'll want this, as well, whenever we find her." Gippal agreed, grabbing his gun (that was the only weapon he had on him at the time he "disappeared").

The group left the room, Little Guy shutting the door behind them. No strange sounds came to their ears; as a matter of fact, NO sounds at all could be heard. Wait--footsteps… They all got ready for something to turn the corner up ahead… And something did--or someone, rather: tall, a definite man, his hair choppy and black and would probably be shoulder-length if the man actually used a comb, which, personally, Gippal didn't think he even knew what one was. His clothing consisted of black baggy pants, the ends of which were tucked into his knee-high army style type of boots; for a shirt, he wore a tight, long-sleeved black shirt, one that showed every muscle in his upper body. Over that shirt was a sleeveless trench coat, the color being black. In short: the man wore a lot of black. Even his eyes were black and emotionless.

Time just seemed to stop--Gippal didn't know how long they'd been standing there, staring at the man in black. Then, as if the strange dude was BORED, he turned around and walked away down the hall to their left. HE JUST WALKED AWAY. All Gippal could do was drop his jaw and blink. "Uh…what just happened?" he asked, pointing ahead of them where the strange dude once stood.

XxXxX

"Please, listen to me! You must stop this work before she finds out!" pleaded a woman, her long white hair glowing red from the dancing flames in the fireplace behind her. Red eyes were shadowed from the light, her face almost hidden, yet one could still see the worry on her face. A chair to her left, one to her right, she and both chairs were on a red carpet that covered the small area beneath them in front of the crackling fireplace, the flames illuminating a soft red glow onto anything and everything nearby.

Footsteps echoed throughout the large den, growing softer as the one making the sound walked away from the pleading woman. Shadows were cast over the rest of the room, two couches placed across from one another with a large oval table in the middle barely being seen. "Don't you walk away from me! You know I'm right! You know she'll kill us all!"

Whoever was walking away from her didn't seem to be paying any attention to her. They just walked away, completely ignoring the woman's pleading words, her soft sobs. One of the heavy wooden door northwest of the woman slammed shut, the picture frames shaking in their places on the wall. The woman fell to the floor, the carpet burning her knees as she did so. Tears began to flow uncontrollably, her shoulders shaking. She shook her head slowly, warm tears still coming. "She'll kill us all…" Her right hand was on her swollen stomach, and even with shadows cast over her front, one could still see that she was halfway along a pregnancy--

Paine shot up from her lying position on the bed with a gasp, eyes wide. Another strange dream… she slowed down her breathing to a normal pace. Honestly she didn't know what to think of that dream--she'd never dreamt about the pregnant woman before, so why now? Shrugging it off and deciding to think about it later or never again, Paine removed the blanket on her and put it to the right of her--something went flying toward the wall, bouncing off, flying by her and rolling off the edge of the bed. She would have grabbed it when it had flown by her but she merely just leaned back a little, leaning over the edge of the bed to see a small, clear sphere roll underneath the large bed.

"What the hell?" Paine hung upside-down over the edge to look underneath the bed, seeing the sphere stop rolling when it hit the wall. She swung the rest of her body off the bed, immediately crawling underneath to reach the sphere. Body now halfway under, her arm out-stretched--but the sphere rolled away toward the far corner, Paine cursing as she pulled herself further under the bed. "Oh--" Her hand had fallen on something that caught her attention: a small hole in the floor. After she'd placed her finger in that hole and pulled up, a large square piece of the floor came up, revealing quite a drop underneath, but at least there was a ladder.

And after some fighting and cursing, her legs finally went down in the hole, feet finding one of the bars belonging to the ladder, and in a few moments, she was fully in the hole; it had been difficult, considering the small space between the floor and bed, but Paine had managed to do it. Everything went black after she put the floor back where it had been in the beginning. Shouldn't be too hard to find my way down, right? All I have to do is take it slowly, one step at a time- Her left foot missed the ladder bar completely, Paine hitting her forehead on a bar. Head bouncing off that bar, she lost whatever grip she'd had and fell down into the darkness…

x X x

Running running running. Tired. Out of breath. Confused. Frightened. Why?

"ROOOOAAAARRRR!" That's why. Heavy footsteps, heart pounding. Lost. Hallways all look the same. Must get away. Heat coming from behind. Hot. FIRE!--

A flash of light.

Water. Rushing, roaring water. Cold. Can't breathe. Water getting into lungs. PAIN! Everything red. Dizzy. Darkness…heart…slowing down…voices…distant…voices…

"Paine!"

"Pai-"

Evil laughter. Screams of pure terror and pain. All is red and blurry. Why is everything darkening…? Land. No more water. No more screaming. Land. Soft dirt. Wobbling. Spinning. PAIN! Screams of pain! My screams! Tears and screams of pain. Hurts so much! Footsteps running, coming closer. Warm breath. Gentle hands. Can't see so dark.

"Shhhh, calm down. I'm here to help." Voice so calm and…and…familiar…

XxXxX

He'd already sent the e-mail to his sister. Now he just stayed in his room, sitting at his desk, searching for information on his computer that might be helpful to Paine. The animals had already been fed, and this time he had brought extra mice for Perfidus, but he never answered him, so Steven assumed the man was sleeping.

Now that is was three-fifteen in the morning (he fed the animals at two AM, noon, and five), everyone on the third flood were supposed to be asleep. His sister was on this floor, but the two couldn't act like they knew each other, so they never saw one another.

Successfully hacking into the security system, Steven was going to check on Paine to make sure she was actually behaving. But his hopes vanished when he saw that the room was very empty of any Paine. She couldn't get out--the only exit was the door that led out to the hall, but it was locked. So what happened to her? Did they come and take her? He had an idea. That scientist guy knew everything; maybe something was on his computer. It didn't take much too long for Steven to hack into his computer. The old man was way too cocky and thought no one would dare hack into his computer, so it only took a little over five minutes.

'Experiment one, first try: failed--not enough Draconis deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), as well as original.

……Experiment one, second try: successful--one pint of--'

Steven skimmed through a lot of it, not really understanding any of it, nor caring at all. These experiments were normal. Just more for him to feed three times a day.

'--experiment two, first try: failed--second try: failed--third try: failed--' "Whoa…" Ten times the scientist tried to get this experiment to work. Ten times! And every time he failed! "What were you trying to do…?"

'…body tissue could not be recreated. Too little of original DNA sample……must transfer mind and spirit to another body until original can be fixed…' "What?" If only he understood better… He was a soldier, not a scientist. His sister would know, though. He'll have to send a copy of this to her so she can explain it to him. But since this information wouldn't help Paine, he might as well continue to search for something that would. So he skimmed through pages and pages of research, not finding anything of any use.

"Hey, I think I found something." Codes. A lot of codes. He probably used them for…uh… Okay, so Steven didn't know what he could have possibly used them for. There really wasn't that many codes--fifteen, at the most. It really wouldn't be hard for him to memorize these codes. He finally banged his head against the keyboard out of frustration-- "Oh no!" The current window began flipping through all the security cameras in the entire estate--basement levels included--, and that was a LOT. "Stop stop stop!" Pressing keys, he tried to get it to stop. If it continued to do this they'd surely know what he's been doing--it stopped. "Huh?" Steven looked at the security camera it had stopped on.

Three men--two blonds, one white haired--walked toward the elevators. Escapees? Wait! I think I know them! Where had he read about them? Checking the scientist's files again, he found the right one:

'Two captives: Gippal from Djose Temple and Baralai from Bevelle. Both good friends of Paine--a skilled warrior from Spira.' But wait. There was no mention of the third guy. And the above places weren't even on Gala! Nor did they exist! He was about to read further when his computer screen went black--

"What the--"

"Y-" Steven had shot up out of his chair and stumbled backwards, knocking the chair over, before anymore of the white letters could show on the screen. "Oh shit!" He just stared wide-eyed at the screen as more letters appeared. Finally remembering that it was just some stupid computer and it couldn't hurt him, he took one baby step closer--now four feet away from the very haunted computer. He leaned forward a couple inches (and no further) to read what was on the screen.

"You should go to B3 immediately--you are needed in the security room. Help her before they kill her."

"As if I should listen to you…" he muttered, glaring at the haunted computer.

"JUST DO IT, STEVEN."

And Steven was out of the room before his name had even finished appearing on the computer screen.

After the young man had left the room, the computer screen went back to normal. A message appeared on the screen, saying an e-mail from Kate had been received.

XxXxX

It was three-twenty-three AM, and Kate was tired, lying in her bed, unable to sleep. Her mind was just full of random thoughts. It was just stress, that was all. This was normal for her; after a few minutes of lying here, she'd eventually fall asleep. Until then, she'd stared at the ceiling.

Knockknockknock.

Who is it now? Kate rose and got off the bed, walking quickly to the door and opening it. "Oh--Cerah! What brings you--"

"We need to talk," the woman pushed her way into Kate's room, quietly shutting the door, her voice in a low whisper as she spoke. "Are you alone?"

How confused Kate was. "Uh…yeah. What's this about?"

Yang was trembling all over--the news was definitely big and not good news. "Sh-she--"

"Deep breath."

Taking that deep breath and letting it out slowly, it didn't help much, but she continued anyway. "She-she kn-knows!"

Oh no-- "What? How is this possible? We've kept very quiet and--"

"I over-heard some soldiers talking and they're going to interrogate everyone here! They think there's a resistance going on! Kate, they're going to interrogate the scientists first!"

This could not be happening. If only it weren't true… Ultimecia allowed her soldiers to do anything in an interrogation--anything. The last person to be interrogated--or tortured in order to get answers one more than likely didn't have--was only tortured for five minutes before she confessed. And Kate knew she was innocent! After that five minutes of torture, she was never the same again--and once she got back to her room, she committed suicide. Being interrogated by the soldiers was not good. Oh my Hyne. Will they really interrogate every person here? Ultimecia won't have anyone left to-- "Cerah!" Her eyes went wide. The witch had never planned to interrogate all of her people, or any, for that matter. "Oh my Hyne! You've led them straight to us!"

Kate quickly ran over to the computer, typing up an e-mail and sending it to her brother. He needed to get out of here. They would connect her to him and she couldn't have her brother going through that torture. She wasn't going to take him down with her. The maps of the estate are in the e-mail. If he follows the secret passages--

Footsteps. Many footsteps. They're coming! Without a second's hesitation she erased everything on her computer and turned to face the door, her left hand opening the desk draw-- The door was kicked down, men in black clothing and big guns bursting into the room, Cerah screaming, Kate's hand coming out of the draw--and she'd thrown a grenade--BANG! Her body went backwards, crashing into the computer then falling to the floor with a thump. She lay there, motionless as another scream pierced through the room before a big--

--explosion.

XxXxX

The floor beneath him and the walls around him shook violently--and yet he stood still, the explosion that had apparently gone off not effecting him, only everything around him. Shaking his head, his hair falling over the right side of his face, the man in only black leaned against the wall of the hallway, footsteps being heard coming toward him. Although the explosion had taken place on the third floor of the estate (four floors about him), the effects still could be felt in the basement levels.

He crossed his arms, a group of men running by him toward the stairs; they were headed to the scene of the explosion. The men in black didn't even stop to ask the man who he was--the humans were not even away of his presence. How easy it was to manipulate their minds so they wouldn't see him. It bored him, but he did it anyway because they would throw such a fit if they were to see him. She would most definitely be over-dramatic if she were to find him out of his cage. Apparently she thought he was an animal, a beast too dangerous to be kept out of his cage. How right she was.

No more men rushed by him and it was silent once more. He stared down the hall they ran down, soft footsteps coming front the right--where the soldiers had come from.

"Aaahh. So you are the one I have heard so much about."

The man's voice he recognized to be Ultimecia's "side-kick"; his name he did not remember. Actually, he didn't think he even knew it, but as if he really cared what his name was. As to how the man could see him--now that he was confused on, but found it amusing. "How is it that I am able to be see by such a person as you?" his voice had a playful tone in it as he spoke, but he never turned his head to look at the man.

A pause--the man probably shrugged. "I do not know. Tell me: what is your name? "

He turned his head to look at the man, taking in his appearance. The man wore dark, tight pants; the other thing he wore was a long robe, the colors different shades of blue, the sleeves covering most of his rather large hands. Around his waist was a large ribbon tied to look like a bow. A net with tassels on the end was underneath this robe-like clothing. Most of his chest and stomach was shown, strange tattoos on his chest being visible. Out of all of this, though, he thought the man's blue hair was the strangest of all: some of it was up in the air then flowing down like water. Even the markings on his face weren't as strange as his hair.

"Why is my name of any importance, hm?"

A smirk was on the man's face. "Because I'd like to tell Ultimecia the name of the person I've killed."

Chuckling, he thought this was amusing: the man thought he could kill him. "Perhaps you shouldn't underestimate your opponent." Oh yes, the man had power, but was it enough to over-power him?

"So very true. I am being a bit too cocky, am I not?"

"Just leave before I decide to mop these halls with your blood."

"Or is it not I being cocky, but you?"

There was the sound of a door being shut, a female presence being sensed by him--he knew who it was and grinned. "And let the games begin."