FINAL FANTASY

PATH OF DARKNESS

Chapter Three

Lab Of Shadows

Sephiroth frowned to himself as he observed the somewhat drab landscape, this was not where he had intended to arrive. He had been attempting to return to Gaia in order to take control, but instead he had arrived here.

Not what he had planned at all. The area was rather simple, a thick green forest with a very creepy light, almost dark shining through a canopy that should not have allowed sunlight.

Rinoa was not with him, another thing he had not planned was her vanishing.

He became aware of another presence in the area, someone watching him, based on his somewhat stealthy movements he was very cautious. Sephiroth turned to look but saw nothing despite looking directly into

a clearing.

That was another thing about this forest that annoyed Sephiroth, it seemed to play tricks on ones mind, alot.

Sephiroth held the hilt of the Masamune tightly as he slowly turned full circle. There was definetely someone watching him, but he could'nt tell from where which was truly infuriating. "This place confused me initially as well."

Sephiroth whirled swiping at the source of the raspy voice, and was quite suprised when the figure ducked beneath the hit. Sephiroth followed through with another strike that his target dodged with ease.

A frown crossed Sephiroth's face as he pursued this man with another slash, his target leapt above the slash sailing into the air his tattered brown cloak flapping behind him. Sephiroth jumped after with another slash

that the man turned away from in mid-airbefore flipping away from Sephiroth landing lightly on a log acting as a somewhat lopsided bridge over a quiet slow deep river.

Sephiroth landed on the log as well and chased after the man with a series of rapid strikes all of which his target dodged moving backwards into a clearing his cloak flaring up behind him dramaticaly.

Sephiroth paused from his offensive to evaluate just how much effort it would take to land a fatal blow on this person. A bit more than he was willing to exert befor he knew what he could expect in this world. One had to know these things

if one planned on living for any length of time.

"Are you done yet, or do i have to end it myself?" The man asked with a somewhat confident smirk. Sephiroth almost laughed but managed to maintain his poker face. His opponent actually thought that was his best.

He was wrong, it was only 1/2 of Sephiroth's speed and strength, he was trying to conserve energy.

"Who are you?" Sephiroth asked coldly. "Atrum Posterus, and you are Sephiroth." Atrum said smugly. Sephiroth sprang into the clearing with a quick clean strike, which Atrum dodged flipping onto a branch several feet off the ground.

"Very well, i shall end it then." Atrum said as the Ultima weapon formed in his grip. Sephiroth only smirked as he brought up his dormant power, play time was over. The two leapt at each other at the exact same instant

their blades held infront of them to meet in the middle with a feirce ringing.

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Cloud looked up from his thoughts with a gasp, just thenhe had felt Sephiroth, close yeat somehow far away at the same time. "Cloud?" Squall asked in concern as he saw Cloud's somewhat distresed look. "I can feel him, he's laughing."

The words were spoken in Cloud's voice, but Cloud had not spoken. However he did recognize the words, those were the words he had said to Tifa just before he had confronted Sephiroth at the start of this thing.

Squall was watching Cloud and knew he had not said anything right then. Yet the words had been heard by both of them anyway.

"This is...unusaul." Cloud stated looking around.

"Quite right, even i am unsure of what just happened." Jenova's voice entered Cloud's mind in a somewhat baffled tone. Squall scanned the area with his eyes in the hope that he might spot the cause of this oddity. No such luck.

Suddenly the area around them began to shift, light pulsed about and high pitched noise entered their ears painfully. Then it stopped and they were standing in a bare metal room that smelled oddly like strong make-up.

Neither of them spoke, instead they braced themselves for a possible attack.

None came much to their releif, though they were still not very happy about this new place. It had a very bad air to it, it smelled of evil. Bad intentions were almost dripping from the ceiling. Most disturbing.

A single door rested at the end of the room. Cautiously, they moved towards it, but then something happened that rattled cloud to his core. "Please, do'nt go in there, there is no hope of surviving it if you do.

I cannot allow you're destruction! I have to much to lose and gain!" Jenova pleaded with him. Inside Jenova he felt real fear and concern, whatever was through the door must be pretty nasty if it scared Jenova.

Regardless he could'nt just stay here.

Squall drew his gunblade holding it to the side, Cloud held his sword much the same way, though he angled his blade away from him. Squall reached out and opened the door and they stepped through.

The other side was odd, a almost industrial setting. Metal floor, metal rails to keep people falling down into what looked like a garbage pit. Blood was spattered across the floor and wall, fresh by the look of things yet there

were no corpses.

The two walked silently on full alert across the room and turned a corner. There was another door which Squall opened. They walked through to find a hallway of metal with high ceilings and glass tubes big enough to hold

five humans lined up on either side filled with a mysterious blue liquid.

Carefully they walked, then Cloud saw it. One of the tubes toward the end of the place held somewhat who should have been dead. "Aeris!" Cloud said in suprise. Squall looked over at hearing the name and also spotted her.

However before either of them could move toward the tube, a single drop of blood fell from the ceiling landing at Cloud's feet. Then there was a low menacing growl that was like nothing either of them had ever heard.

They turned their eyes upward to see a massive creature perched on the ceiling, a hideous mutated beast with two demonic horns slobber dripping from its mouth a spiked tail coming from its back.

Dark green purple and crimsom were the colors of its skin. It had seven legs on one side and nine on the other with a deformed crab like pincer sticking from its chin, blood smeared across its ugly face. Sticking out of one shoulder

was an arm which branched into seven barbed whips. Sticking out of its chest was an arm the size of a tree trunk with eight fingers, two of which were thumbs.

Last, sticking from three points along its body were long tentacles the seemed to be pure muscle. It looked at them slowly with an air of something unnatural, and it was hungry.