Woot! After much sweat and labor, I have given to you another chapter! I hope that you guys like it and don't forget to give lots of constructive comments! 3

Chapter Three

The darkness closed in around Kadaj, who laid shivering and twitching on the floor. His eyes rolled into the back of his head several times as he nearly passed out. Ever since he had stopped talking, the doctors started to administer more and more mako, each treatment having even worse effects on him then the ones before. His arms were dotted with needle puncture marks, and each little tiny circle was black and blue. The mako that coursed through his blood weakened him to the point that he couldn't even stand without support. Perhaps that was why the doctors hadn't put him back into the straight jacket. He was too weakened to even thinking about fighting. Too weak to do anything. Too weak to even think about escaping. The pain that spider-webbed through his veins occupied his thoughts entirely. Nothing else could enter his mind. All he could do was lie on the floor, shuddering and sputtering, hoping that there would be some relief from the pain. But the doctors had gone and he was alone…

Sephiroth had been quiet too. Too quiet. Sometimes Kadaj wondered if there had ever been such a thing, or if that too had been a twisted part of his imagination. His madness. His eyes lolled up and down, and he felt himself drifting off into darkness. Oh, that sweet darkness! It held him, cradled him, and kept him safe from all the pain. At least in that desolate oblivion there was no such thing as pain. He could afford to rest for a while without having to worry about the white doctors, the white room, the white laboratory, the white straight jacket. All the white. It was tainted by darkness. By shadow. Death. How he wished he would die. If perhaps his spirit could flee his body and leave it for dead. His eyes lolled again. Kadaj slammed his head against the padding.

"Let me out!" he screamed. "Let me out!" Nothing answered him. Not even the darkness wavering so uncertainly at the edge of his mind. It didn't come for him.

"Sephiroth . . ." he sputtered, saliva creeping over the edge of his lower lip. "Don't leave me. Please . . . come back. Come back!" He closed his eyes and slammed his head into the padding over and over until hot tears crept down the side of his face, and he tasted their bitter, salty taste. "Can't leave me . . . not me. Nibelheim. Nibel . . . he . . . hrm . . heim!"

Sniffling, Kadaj wiped his face against the floor padding and forced himself to roll over. It pained him to even move a little like that, but he did. He couldn't imagine trying to fall asleep in any other position then a fetal one. He let himself dream. He wanted to see those dreams. Those bittersweet memories

Jenova's DNA. That was the key. The key to unleashing Sephiroth, the most powerful SOLDIER ever to exist. He held that key in his hands, the last DNA that was extracted from Jenova. The very last. It was green, hardly dense. Not very blood like at all. But Jenova wasn't human. What was she? He'd find out. He'd find out so soon.

He felt himself changing. Changing. His body ached, he screamed. His veins were on fire, oh god. What had he done? Was it poison he had stolen from Rufus Shinra? What was it that was coursing through his body? His heart stopped, and everything became black.

Breathless. His chest ached, his body was in pain. His gloved hand clawed at the cement and he looked up. An angel. Beautiful blonde hair, flawless blue eyes. And then there was the light pulling him into the clouds. Pulling him to his brothers. They looked so happy, for the first time in their lives since they had been entered into the SOLDIER program. He was finally free from that wretched world. Finally free…

Kadaj jolted awake. He craned his neck to the side. Everything was quiet. Too quiet. Even the guards who were sitting at the end of the hallway in their little cubicles watching tv were silent. It was deafening. The other inmates were sleeping soundly. The lights were off. The darkness was creeping in. Thick tendrils of shadow slithered through the hallway. The light bulbs, one by one, shattered oh so quietly. Shards of glass fell harmlessly on his face. His hot, feverish face. His eyes were bloodshot and they darted around as he pulled himself onto his hands and knees. A heated fire spread through his arms and face. Kadaj felt so sick that it was a wonder he hadn't puked all over his cell yet. The padding was cold. So very cold.

And then he stood on his knees, his eyes wide, fearful. He heard that ever so dreadful beeping sound when the doctors entered the lock code into the number pad and put him on a gurney. But there was nothing at the door. Even when he heard the soft acceptance beep and the locks churned and his door opened . . . he saw nothing. Nothing but the darkness and the shadow. Thick tendrils of shadow crept into his cell, slithering along the floor and walls. Curling. Withering.

Kadaj stood, watching wearily to see if it was a trap. Or if it was just a figment of his imagination. Nothing moved, and he heard nothing. All this nothing was driving him mad. Paranoid. He was so paranoid. But the young man took a step forward nonetheless and peeked out into the hallway. It was covered with shattered glass, and he heard the scurrying of guards at the far end of the hall.

For a second, he was cold all over, and he nearly fell backwards from the force that pushed against him. It was so powerful, whatever it was. Even if it was just a hallucination, it felt powerful. Then his limbs lightened, and the heat in his blood cooled. All that had been poisoning him fled.

GO! What are you waiting for? An invitation or something? The voice hissed, and Kadaj recognized Sephiroth. However, he stood dead in his place, just staring down the hall. Could he really take such a risk? Could he even walk down the hall? He knew what he had to do. He could see the unscrewed drain lid in the center of the hall. The darkness cloaked his form, and no one would see him. No one would notice that he had left his cell. No one would know how he ever managed to crawl, half sedated, to his feet and manage somehow to open his cell and leave the hallway guarded by at least three armed guards. A distorted grin fluttered across his pale, chapped lips. His eyes darkened.

The glass crunched noiselessly beneath his tender feet. His toes clutched the ice cold floor as he padded down the hallway, heedless of the bloodshot eyes that darted from him to the guard's scrambling around at the end of the hall. Kadaj was oblivious to their panicked cries and their calls to the main office for back up lighting. A light at the very end of the hall flickered on, it's blood red rays soaking up the water on the cement. It flickered and died. But it flickered on again, and then off. Kadaj felt a strange stirring in his breast as the light suddenly flickered on and then a second one followed. His blue green eyes filled with crimson as the emergency lights slowly came on, one by one.

Move! The voice hissed venomously, but Kadaj remained still, entranced by the red lights. He could see the guards scurrying around in their cubicles as they tried desperately to unlock the doors to the hallway. The televisions were all static, and they flickered on and off angrily. Is this the power you have, Sephiroth? Is this why they want you so much? Kadaj teetered on the tips of his toes, just in front of the water drain. The lights were coming closer, the guards were pulling out their rifles, firing at the doors. Red and orange reflected in Kadaj's deep, swirling depths. And he grinned. Grinned so subtly that it was cattish. Deep, sadistic. We'll show them, Sephiroth. We'll show them all.

He pulled the grill off the large pipe and stepped onto the ladder. The grill slid noiselessly back over the pipe as Kadaj stepped onto each moist, moss covered bar. His toes clutched at the metal as he eased himself down the pipe. Screams and cries of horror rose in a beautiful crescendo as the silver haired boy dropped into the bottom of the pipe. The roaring sound of fire consuming everything in its path echoed down the water drain and Kadaj simply smiled. Looking up, his eyes piercing the thick darkness, he saw the fire explode through the hall and heard the cries of pain and agony from the men locked in his wing. He threw his head back and laughed. And he laughed. And laughed. And laughed until his chest burned.

Letting go of the slick ladder, Kadaj turned away from the screams and the cries and the roar of the fire. Those sounds faded into nothingness as the dark oblivion of the sewers slowly enveloped him. His eyes pierced the shadows that hung in the sewers like thick silk curtains. Nothing bothered him. Not even the cold of the water that came up to his waist. Everything was nothing to him. And it consumed him. The cold, dark water that curled past his body, moving languidly in the direction that he wanted to go, the humid, dank air that suffocated his breaths . . . all of it was meaningless.

Kadaj stumbled through the sewers, heedless of what laid before him...

Collapsing, the silver haired man leaned his head back against the pipe wall. He had been walking for what seemed like ages, and aside from his feet and legs hurting, the cold was starting to gnaw at his bones. After all, he was practically naked except for the scanty little gown he wore. Most of the buttons had been torn off while he had trudged through the deep sewer water. He was so close to getting to the sewer opening where all the waste was dumped into a river. In fact, Kadaj was so close to freedom that he swore he could smell the fresh air and hear the roar of the water crashing down the mountain side.

Running his fingers through his hair, he gasped for air. He was breathless. Tired. Wasted. Whenever he held his hands to his face, they trembled. His dark veins were sickeningly evident beneath his ivory colored skin. They seemed more green then red, but Kadaj didn't doubt it. So much mako had been injected into his body, most of what he was composed of probably wasn't even his own cells. Just mako.

He sputtered, "How much further? I'm so . . . so cold. Like death. Dying all over again." Lifting his head, he stared listlessly down the pipe.

Keep moving. Shinra will be crawling all through these sewer lines in a few hours.

"But I'm tired. Cold. Tired. I'm tired and I'm cold. I just want to lie down and sleep. Just a little bit. No more dreams. No more Shinra. Just sleep. Sephiroth . . ." Kadaj's eyes lolled into the back of his head as his body hit the cold cement. His fingers twitched. They tapped the cold cement with their long, glassy nails. Tap tap tap. Titter tat. His entire body was spasming violently. A neon green substance trickled out of his nose and onto the side of his face. Those eyes of his flared green, a deep, but brilliant green. And then he rolled into the sewer water, body rocking back and forth, twisting in on itself.

The cold of the water must have jolted him out of his epileptic state, because he splashed around, lurching forward the moment his face fell beneath the dark, hungry surface. Clutching a nearby railing, Kadaj retched into the water. There was nothing in his stomach, but he continued to vomit several times before wobbling unsteadily. His pale hand clutched desperately at the railing.

I said move, Kadaj. Sephiroth said sternly. The sooner we get out of the sewers, the better. Kadaj shook his head, wiping away specks of vomit that clung to his chapped lips, "No. What then? Forest. Forest forever. Hundreds of thousands of forests. Let's sleep. Forever." There was an uncertain silenced that passed between the two before Sephiroth barked, We'll keep going if I say we go! I'll abandon your worthless, sorry ass if I have to. I don't need you to survive. Kadaj snickered, spit out the foul taste in his mouth and trudged forward. Scratching the side of his neck, he mumbled, "If you didn't need me, you'd have left. Or taken my brothers. Should have left me alone. Go back to Jenova. Go free."

For the rest of the trek, Sephiroth was completely silent. He didn't even muster up an annoyed bark when Kadaj stopped and sat against the cold pipe wall, feet dangling over the edge of the sidewalk that lined both sides of the sewer pipe. The tunnels were large enough that six or seven men could walk abreast down the center of the pipe without a problem. While that wasn't too bad considering that there were sidewalks, it would become a problem if Shinra found out what happened before Kadaj could slip out of the sewers and lose them in the forest. By that time, it would be too late to bring out the hounds. His scent would be lost on the wind, or more likely, absorbed by the earth. He was filled to the brim with mako, so little of what he gave off would be his actual scent. Not that there would be anything to give the dogs to track him with.

Fresh air wafted down the pipe and Kadaj's head snapped up. He shakily lifted himself to his feet and hurried down the sidewalk. He could feel the cold mist of fresh water being sprayed into the air and hear the roar of water crashing against rocks. Sephiroth must have sensed it as well, because Kadaj's entire body became light and his pains seeped away into the back of his mind. As he hurried along, he could hear the sounds of crickets and fireflies. The sounds of the night fluttered through the air, carried by the moist current that curled through the sewer pipe.

And then he saw it. The vast forest that laid before him. Through the short line of tunnel, he could see the trunks of the trees and the heads of leaves that extending towards the sky. The water moved swiftly through the piping, crashing into the river below to be carried down through the mountains. Kadaj clutched to the sidewalk railing and stuck his head out of the pipe. The stars! There were so many little bright lights in the sky that it nearly blinded him. He couldn't remember the last time he saw so much light. No . . . he could. When the angel came and lifted him into the light. And his body almost faded away into dust. Kadaj reached out with his pale, trembling hand towards the stars and grasped at them.

"The Calamity . . . from the sky . . . fiery vessel. Mother," His eyes filled with tears and his hand fell to his side.

Something stirred. And Sephiroth spoke again, Into the forest, Kadaj. And then we can sleep . . . sleep . . . yes.

Kadaj stood still, motionless on the edge of the sidewalk, his tear filled eyes staring in wonder at the sky. Strands of silver hair fell over his blue green eyes, scattered by the soft wind that came down the side of the mountain. Mist from the churning water clung to each little strand and beaded on his hot face. The air was so fresh and clean. Even with the sewer spewing all sorts of nasty waste into the water, everything was so wonderful to him. It had been almost a year since he had last taken a fresh breath . . . since he had last seen the stars and the forest and all things that were.

He took a shaky step down the small maintenance ladder that led to the edge of the river. He took those steps as though he were stepping for the first time in his life. Then again, it was a new life to him. A life without white walls, doctors, and mako. It was something that he couldn't quite remember but lingered in him still. His heart pounded furiously in his breast and a wave of anxiety rippled through his stomach. Another series of vomiting. Green vomit spewed from his lips and onto the ground below. Green like the mako. Kadaj clung to the ladder and took each step precariously, knowing that a missed footing could easily throw him into the icy clutches of the river.

It was a whole new world…