10. Trespass

An insistent pounding dragged Rude out of sleep.

"Reno? Reno! Are you in there?"

Cissnei's voice, he recognized. Why was she banging on his door if it was Reno she was looking for? Rude couldn't muster up the energy to tell her she had the wrong room, though. Sleep clung to him like mold.

The door rattled on its hinges, shaking from the force of Cissnei's pounding.

"Reno, wake up!" Her voice was getting tense, urgent. "I can't find Rude!"

Reluctantly, he cracked his eyes open. That settled it; he'd have to go over to the door after all and check what she wanted. In just a little bit. As soon as he'd blinked the sleep from his eyes, and got the blood flowing in his joints. Rude felt as stiff as a dead man.

As he tried to make his eyes focus on the cracked plaster ceiling above, he realized something. He wasn't alone. Staying absolutely still, he lowered his gaze until it landed on a scruffy mess of red hair. Rude blinked sluggishly, trying to make sense of the picture. Why was Reno using his chest as a pillow?

The door flung open, and in burst Cissnei. The moment she laid eyes on the bed, she froze in her tracks. Her mouth fell open.

"Whoa. Okay."

The locks in this place really were worthless.

Reno stirred and raised his head, blinking with bleary eyes. He squinted at Rude, then at Cissnei. He squinted at Rude some more, his face screwed up with puzzlement.

"Huh."

Rude took the chance to roll away, then threw his legs over the side and sat up on the edge of the bed. He was still wearing his shades, he realized. He nudged them up with his fingers to rub a sore spot on the side of his nose, giving Cissnei a furtive look in the process. Her grin was far too wide for his liking.

"You surprise me, Rude. I didn't think Reno was your type."

"Whaddya mean Rude surprises ya?" Reno had pushed himself up to a slouch and scratched the back of his head, mussing up his hair.

"Well, I do know what you're like."

"Shut up, Ciss," he grumbled as he rolled out of bed. "You know it ain't what it looks like."

"Oh, I'm not so sure about that. Rude strikes me as a man with great taste in partners, after all... romantic or otherwise."

Reno snorted. "Yeah, right."

He appeared to be on the verge of saying more, but after a glance at Rude he turned his back to them, remaining silent as he adjusted the towel around his waist. It had been a remorseful look, Rude realized to his surprise, perhaps even an apologetic one.

"Well, turtle doves, time to get to work," Cissnei said. "Rayleigh's got a plan."

"I hope this plan of hers involves coffee, yo."

Reno had dug out some underwear from his suitcase, and to Rude's disbelief he pulled them on right in front of them. Thankfully he was still wearing the towel.

"A pot's already brewing," Cissnei said, unfazed, and pushed herself off the door frame. "We'll be in the kitchen."

Rude shot to his feet and hurried out before she closed the door. After one more glance into the room, she pushed it shut and gestured him to follow her a few steps away.

"How was he last night?" she asked under her breath.

"Wound tight. He was himself, though."

She breathed out in a long sigh.

"Rude... Something happened to you when we searched the dark zone."

It wasn't a question, exactly. Rude hadn't mentioned it to her, but considering how spaced-out he'd been afterwards it must have been easy to tell something was amiss. After a moment's hesitation, he nodded.

"Was it like what happened to him?" she asked.

"It was... similar."

"You saw something?"

"I felt it." He wanted to tell her how impossibly real it had all been, but every word that came into his head seemed insufficient to convey the sheer intensity of it.

Even a few hazy memories were enough to make his heart beat harder. He gave her a little shake of the head, willing her to let it go. After a searching look, Cissnei nodded.

"Wait for him. Until we figure this out… He shouldn't be left alone for long."

Rude could tell what she really meant. She didn't think either of them should be on their own. He couldn't say she was wrong.

The kitchen had a different feel to it, Rude mused, compared to the rest of the manor. It was a safe place, untouched by the dread that permeated the rest of the house – especially now that Rude knew his missing PHS had been one of Reno's juvenile pranks. He still didn't get what was supposed to be funny about it, but at least it no longer made him fume. It was a mistake on Reno's part, that belonged in the past.

The professor stood with her back to the sink, her hands clasped behind her. She had just gone over the hypothesis she'd presented the night before, filled out with the details and cautions she had gathered during a late night of research.

"Still hung up on this mold theory, huh." Reno hunched in a chair by the table, arms bundled tight across his chest. His goggles sat lower than usual, leaving his hair free to spill over his face.

"It's the likeliest explanation, don't you think?"

Rude shifted his weight. The professor had presented convincing arguments, yet something about it all didn't feel right – and that alone made his discomfort worse. What should it matter how something felt?

"What about that kid?" Reno leaned back to watch her through the red bangs that hung in his face. "He freaked out before he even got inside the house."

"Spores like that wouldn't have sprung into existence in this house out of nothing. If it's a mold, then it's likely that it grows elsewhere in the area. The young man could have been subjected to them on the way up here."

"You don't think the locals would know about somethin' like that?"

"Maybe they do," she said with a tight smile. "No one comes up here unless they have to, after all. Clearly they're convinced that strange things happen here, but since they don't have the facts, they ascribe it to hauntings and myths."

"She has a point there, Red." Cissnei was leaning against the wall directly across from Reno. She spent as much time watching him as the professor, Rude had noticed.

"Those freaky tracks, then," Reno said. "By the window."

"What tracks?" Rayleigh asked them, looking from one to the other.

"We saw... weird footprints outside," Cissnei explained. "We couldn't get a good photo in the dark, and the rain must have washed them away by now."

"Are you sure you saw them?"

"Of course we saw 'em!" Reno spat.

"Are you sure?" Rayleigh repeated, emphasizing every word.

"What, all of us just happened to hallucinate the same damn thing?"

"Last night the three of you couldn't see a lit corridor twenty feet away."

Reno stared up at her.

Rude chose to stare at his clasped hands. All he had felt lately was fear, and anger. So much anger, senseless, churning inside him like a growing storm. If it was a mold – not the house, not some monster – did that mean all those mean-spirited thoughts, all the ill-willed anger they had fueled… had come from him alone?

His fingers were tugging at his sleeves, smoothing out wrinkles that weren't there. Rude forced them to go still.

"It's a bit like your spooky face in the mirror," Rayleigh added. "You point at it and say what you think you see, asking for confirmation. Suddenly others can see it, too."

Reno squeezed his eyes shut and rubbed his face.

"Fine, whatever," he sighed. "Call it a fuckin' mold. What do we do about it?"

"With what I have here?" Rayleigh adjusted her glasses as she gazed up at the ceiling in thought. "Not much. I need my team and I need proper equipment from Midgar."

"So we're leavin'? Hell yeah, I'm all for that–"

"That won't be necessary. I'll send word to Midgar, and my team will bring everything we need. Shouldn't be more than a week."

"A week?" Reno scowled at her. "Oh, no. No fuckin' way."

Rayleigh narrowed her eyes.

"This is my expedition, Mr. Turk. I make the calls."

"And I can override 'em if security demands it. Well, guess what? Security demands that we haul ass, today."

"What?" Her voice rose a notch higher as her composure cracked. "You can't just make decrees like that!"

"I can and I have. Got a problem with that? Take it up with the chief. Hell, I'll take you to him myself once we're back at HQ."

Rayleigh's hands were balled into fists at her sides. Her mouth twitched as she glared at Reno.

"You said it yourself, Prof," he added. "You ain't equipped to deal with this shit, and neither are we. Pack your bags. The house will still be here when you get back."

She marched out of the kitchen without a word. As the door swung shut behind her, silencing the sharp clack of her heels, Reno leaned his elbow on the table and dropped his head into his hand.

"The same goes for you guys," he mumbled, rubbing his forehead. "Pack up."

Cissnei was watching him carefully.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

"I'll be fan-fuckin'-tastic once we get outta here," he said, with a hollow chuckle. "So let's make it happen, yo."

The Turks left their doors open as they packed. Rude winced with every shirt he threw, straight from the closet into his suitcase. As he and Reno headed down to the pickup truck together, it became clear his wardrobe had nonetheless fared better than others. Reno's suitcase had a whole fringe of excess fabric, like a bearded clam.

Cissnei had parted from them at the top of the stairs, to go help Rayleigh while they loaded up the truck. They had just stepped back in through the front doors when they heard her call out.

"Hey, guys!"

They looked up to see her standing on the second floor landing – without Rayleigh.

"You're not going to believe this," she shouted.

Reno swore and bounded up the stairs. Cissnei fell in with him as he stormed onward to the north wing.

When Rude caught up with them, Reno was banging on the door to the master bedroom.

"Yo, Rayleigh! You in there?"

His question sank into the silence without a trace.

"Fuck it." He pulled out a key from his pocket, its silver surface marred by a patchy greenish sheen. "I'm fresh outta patience for this shit."

Reno jabbed the key straight into the lock and turned it.

"Careful–"

Rude's warning fell on deaf ears. Reno had already shoved the door open. After a quick glance around, he strode in. With a stifled sigh Rude followed him, just far enough in for a more measured look.

The room was much larger than Rude's, and about twice as long as it was wide. A king-sized bed was pushed up against the opposite wall, bathed in the cold morning light from a couple of tall picture windows. A section of roughly-hewn stone filled the far corner, rounded like a tower and broad enough to swallow up half of the shorter wall. The other half was covered by a bookshelf, all the way up to the ceiling. Rayleigh's metal cases were stacked in front of the books, glinting wanly in the glow of the ceiling lamp. Rayleigh herself was nowhere in sight.

"Goddammit!" Reno strode into the room, scowling at the equipment spread out on the floor. "Why the hell would she run off on us now? She knew we're leavin'!"

"She also knows we can't leave without her," Cissnei muttered as she crossed the room to the windows. Her shoes sank into the thick rug without a sound.

"What, she's gonna play hide-and-seek for a week? You'd think a frickin' professor would realize that as plans go, that one sucks!"

Rude eyed the suitcase splayed open on top of the bed. Some of her clothes were neatly stacked inside; others were laid out over the covers, still on their hangers. A button-down shirt had already been taken off its hanger. One sleeve lay draped over the rim of the suitcase, the rest in a heap that threatened to spill off the edge of the bed.

"Looks like she left halfway through her packing," he said. "Maybe she's hallucinating."

"Maybe..." Cissnei had turned her back to the window and was scanning the room. "But there's something else going on here, too."

"What do you mean?"

"You have the master key, but the rest of us don't have keys to our rooms. This door had to be locked from the inside."

As her point sank in, Rude felt his shoulders tense up. Reno's foul mood cooled to something more businesslike; he locked eyes with Rude and nodded toward the door. Rude backed up against the wall beside it, to keep an eye on the room and the corridor outside. Reno dropped to all fours and peeked under the bed, while Cissnei checked behind Rayleigh's silvery stack of metal trunks.

Nothing.

"Maybe she's got a key we don't know about," Reno said.

"If she does, Gubbins might know about it." Cissnei looked around, frowning at the walls. "Or she might know if there's another way out of this room."

"I'm gonna call Gubbins. She can help us look, if nothin' else." He pulled out his PHS, but swore as he looked at the screen. "Oughta get better reception in the foyer," he muttered, heading for the door. "Be right back."

Torn, Rude watched him leave. He didn't want to let Reno go alone, but he didn't want to leave Cissnei by herself in a suspicious room, either.

"Rude," she called, cutting off his deliberation. "See this?"

She pointed to the floor, and he came up beside her. At a glance nothing seemed amiss – but upon a closer look he noticed streaks on the floorboards along the rounded wall.

"Dust?"

"Looks like it. Mostly around here… so not tracked in through the bedroom door." She knocked on the wall in front of them, scanning the uneven stones with her eyes. "And the cleaners swept up every speck of dust in the bedrooms."

"A hidden door."

"That's what I'm thinking."

"What's that?" Reno asked behind them, returning to the bedroom.

"We may have found our second door," Cissnei told him, and pointed out the streaks she'd noticed.

"Huh. That would explain… a lotta things, actually." He took a couple of steps back and appraised the scene before him. "Look at that," he said, gesturing at one of the metal chests with a flick of his chin. "I don't remember any of those having dents like that when we got here."

"And it's pushed right up to the wall." She gave it a tentative kick, but it didn't budge. "Let's take a look."

She climbed on top of the trunk. While she examined the stretch of wall she could reach from her perch, Reno ran his fingers over the cracks between the stones. Rude stepped back and used his eyes. The stones were all different sizes and shapes, selected to fit together as tightly as possible. He stared at them, studying how they meshed into each other. After a while a pattern began to emerge; a continuous seam that formed a roughly rectangular shape, a bit taller and wider than a person.

"Reno. A bit to the right."

Reno moved his hand to the other side of the stone he'd been examining and felt along the edge of it. He dug his fingers into the seam and slid them upward, following the line Rude had traced with his eyes.

"Yeah, might have somethin' here," he murmured.

"I think I've got something too," Cissnei said and tapped the edge of one of the stones at her eye level. "Looks an awful lot like a keyhole."

Reno pushed in right next to the box and got up on his toes. Their heads nearly knocked together as he jostled for a closer look.

"So. You found it."

Rude whirled around at the voice that croaked right behind his back. There stood Mrs. Gubbins in her saggy overalls, her eyes large and hollow in her tight face. She extended a spindly arm and pointed at right him, like a vengeful scarecrow selecting its victim.

"Right there," she cawed. "That's what it opens."

As she lowered her arm, Rude realized he'd taken a step back to avoid her gnarled finger. Reno took a step forward instead, and placed his hands on his hips as he stared her down.

"You knew about this?"

"Of course," she scoffed. "It's my job to know this house, boy."

"So what's behind it?"

Mrs. Gubbins thrust a bony hand into the front pocket of her overalls and produced an old-fashioned key. She offered the key to him, along with one of her creepy smiles.

"See for yourself," she said.

Reno narrowed his eyes, but snatched the key from her and passed it to Rude.

The key was cold and heavy in Rude's hand; made of black iron, he guessed. The ornate head of it consisted of interlocking curves that made him think of a spider web. He looked up at Reno, but the man kept his eyes fixed on Mrs. Gubbins. Clamping down on his unease, Rude delivered the key to Cissnei. It slid easily into the keyhole, and turned with a quiet click. A portion of the wall shuddered, then went still.

"Give it a good push," Mrs. Gubbins said. "Damn thing is a bit rusty these days."

Rude put his hands on either side of the door and pushed. One side of the door lurched inwards a few inches. He shoved again, harder, and stale air blew into his face like a cold breath as the door swung halfway open. He could sense a large open space beyond it, but the feeble light from the bedroom's ceiling lamp refused to reach into the chamber.

"I need light," he said.

Cissnei dashed off.

Rude took a deep breath. The musty reek was much as he'd expect from a cool, dank cellar, but the air held something else too, something harder to classify. It made him think of moldering cheese, and glass jars where odd creatures floated in murky liquid.

Cissnei returned in less than a minute, cradling the chunky flashlights in her arms. Rude grabbed one and shone it into the darkness. The chamber appeared to be circular, following the curve of the wall in front of them. A platform of rough timber extended a few feet from the wall, forming a spiral downward into a well of darkness. In the thin layer of dust that covered the wood, Rude saw several sets of footprints.

"Looks like a way down," he mumbled over his shoulder, hoping to avoid an echo.

"C'mon, let the rest of us have a look too." Reno was hovering at his back, trying to peek around him.

Rude placed his shoulder against the door and put his back into it. A rusty cry echoed through the passage beyond; an ear-splitting screech he knew he had heard before.

The Turks looked at each other. Rude saw the realization dawn on their faces, perfectly timed with his own.

"Fuck," Reno spat.

"She's been going down here for days," Cissnei said.

"What for, though?" He stepped into the chamber and leaned over the edge of the wooden ramp, peering into the abyss. "This some kinda secret dungeon or somethin'?"

"Was an escape route once… or so I've heard." Mrs. Gubbins poked her head into the stairwell and looked around. "It's been made into more than that over the years. It's got rooms now, extra… passages, and the like."

Reno rounded on her. "Why the fuck didn't you tell one of us about this?"

Rude had seen men larger than himself back away from a fuming, scowling Reno. But Mrs. Gubbins just squinted at him, her head cocked at a slight angle.

"She asked me about it. You lot didn't."

"Are you fuckin' kidding me? She could've tripped and hit her head down there, and we wouldn't even have known where to look!"

"I get paid to look after the house. Not the humans inside it."

"Well you're gonna help us look for a human right now." He nodded down the rickety ramp. "Ladies first."

Mrs. Gubbins huffed. Rude listened to the creaks and groans of the planks as she picked her way down. The wood was gray with age; it may have held under a slim woman like Rayleigh, but Rude had his doubts about whether it would carry someone of his size. No railings, either. Of course there were no railings.

"Spread out, kids," Mrs. Gubbins said as she shambled onward, hugging the wall. "Only one person on a single board."

"I thought you didn't care about humans," Reno quipped.

"Maybe I'm just thinking it'd be a real pain in my ass to fix a staircase like this." Her skull grinned up at them in the light of the torch.

Rude was the last to enter the chamber, and he made sure to keep the others in sight as they shuffled down the spiral ramp like caterpillars on a branch. If the wood snapped under him, at least he wouldn't pull them all down with him.

Their flashlights gave him a better idea of their surroundings, too. The deeper they shimmied, the clammier the air felt on his skin. Soon, he saw the jagged edges of the stone wall glisten in the beams of their torches. The dust on the planks gave way to a slimy film that threatened to send his boot sliding with every step. He didn't take a proper breath until he had both feet back on solid stone.

Mrs. Gubbins stood at the only exit from the stairwell and shone her light down a dreary tunnel, wide enough to fit three of them side by side. Uneven flagstones lined the floor, but otherwise it looked more like a cave than something manmade.

"I haven't been down here for decades. Not since the last time you Shinra folks were here."

The strange smell was stronger at the foot of the stairs. Rude realized what was so familiar about it at last; just a few weeks ago, he'd smelled something very similar among broken containers and spilled chemicals at Shinra HQ, when the Turks had cleared out what remained of Hojo's lab.

"The science team," he said. "They worked down here?"

"They sure did. Labs down here, offices up there." She sniffed and wrinkled her nose. "Wasn't this… dismal, back then."

Reno turned his head to stare at her, his face pale as a sheet in the gloom.

"What did they work on?" Rude asked her.

Mrs. Gubbins shrugged. "Wouldn't have a clue. They did their job… I did mine."

"Let's talk about your job, then," Reno said. "You've been the caretaker for decades. Ever see anything funny?"

"Funny?"

Reno paused; not long, but long enough for Rude to notice.

"Something that wasn't there."

Slowly, a toothy grin spread across her face.

"This old place is getting to you, isn't it?"

"You keep sayin' that. What the fuck do you actually mean?"

"You already know what I mean." She fixed Rude with a colorless stare. "So do you. I can see it all over your faces."

Reno took two steps closer to her, tapping his flashlight against his left shoulder as if it was his mag rod.

"Y'know what, Gubbins?" It was almost a purr. "I'm gettin' real fuckin' tired of your bullshit."

"Reno." Cissnei's voice was low, but carried a clear edge. "Let's find Rayleigh. We can ask questions once we're out of here."

Ever calm, ever the one with her priorities straight. Easy for her, though. She hadn't seen things. She hadn't seen anything. If Reno wanted to dig some answers out of the creepy old hag... Rude wouldn't stop him.

A drop of water echoed in the silence. With a dark glance at Cissnei, Reno stepped back and stalked down the passage. Mrs. Gubbins lurched after him, closely followed by Cissnei.

Exhaling slowly, Rude adjusted his shades. He wanted to rub his eyes, to rid himself of the pressure mounting behind them, but a primal instinct had taken hold of him, whispering in his bones to keep his eyes open, to never even blink. Something might just be there, out in the darkness, right on the edge of what he could see. A split-second might be all it would need.

Rude caught up with the others at the T-shaped split at the end of the passage.

"Well kids, it's a pretty big place." Mrs. Gubbins was peering down one of the branches, her flashlight painting a bright circle across the greasy-looking walls. "We could split up to cover more ground. Two of us to the left, and two… to the right."

"No, we should stick together," Cissnei whispered. "We don't know what's down here."

"Yeah, we stick together. I ain't taking any risks down here." Reno swept his torch across one end of the passage, then the other. "You know this place, Gubbins. Lead the way. We're gonna comb every inch of this shithole until we find the Prof."

Mrs. Gubbins took a few moments to deliberate. Then she shrugged, and stalked off to the left.

Rude brought up the rear once again. He would stop every so often and stare into the darkness behind them, straining his eyes and ears. He waited at the gaping mouths in the walls that led into chambers and side passages, while the others searched within.

The pressure behind his eyes was growing. Maybe it was the air, saturated with whatever chemicals Hojo had left behind him all those decades ago. Maybe it was the teeming spores of Rayleigh's hypothetical mold. Something was growing on these damp walls, black like soot in the light of his torch.

Rude.

Goosebumps crawled down Rude's neck. For a second, he could have sworn he'd heard–

Rude.

It was a woman's voice, fluttering right at the edge of his hearing; so faint it might have been nothing but a ghost, lost in the white noise that filled his ears.

Rude. Find me.

Rude slowed his steps and looked over his shoulder. It must have been more than just an overactive imagination. He could have sworn it came from behind him.

"Reno, wait."

They kept moving. Had he even said the words out loud? He'd heard his own voice, but it was hard to tell how loud it had been over the noise in his head. It was a constant, high-pitched buzz in his skull now; not one he could hear, but one he could feel.

Rude.

That, though; he had definitely heard that. It had to be Rayleigh.

"Guys!"

He saw only their shadows, bobbing in the faint, fading glow of their flashlights. They must have turned a corner.

Rude. Find me.

He froze. The voice had changed, or maybe it had just been too quiet for him to realize before.

Rude!

How could he have been so mistaken? It wasn't Rayleigh at all.

"Chelsea," he shouted. "Stay still. I'll find you!"

Rude!

Her voice held an urgency now, a touch of fear. Rude dashed back the way he'd come, heedless of the way his shoes slid on the slippery stones beneath his feet. He turned a corner, ducked into a chamber, turned again, slipped, stumbled–

A hard smack on his forehead sent him reeling backwards. He crashed into something behind him and threw out his arms as he fell. A sharp pain jolted his elbow and shot up through his arm. His flashlight flew from his hand and cracked against the floor and went dark.

Even in pitch black, Rude could feel the world spin. As the sensation ebbed, he gingerly reached up to inspect the throbbing spot on his head – and bit down on a hiss as the pain roared back tenfold. He waited until it died down again, forcing his breaths to be as quiet as possible. Chances were he had just run into a wall, but he couldn't be sure.

Carefully, Rude ventured to bend his arm, and to his relief he could. Likely not broken, but the elbow he'd landed on was stinging like a son of a bitch. He wouldn't be throwing any punches with that arm until he could find Cissnei and her healing materia.

That voice... He was hearing things now, but that wasn't the worst of it. The knowledge that he'd run toward the voice instead of away from it felt like a steel band tightening around his chest. His instincts weren't his own anymore.

He had to get back to the others.

Rude rolled onto his front, and spent a precious minute fumbling for his flashlight before he gave up. Even if he could find it, it would be useless. He'd heard the crunch of breaking glass as it landed.

He got up on his knees, then to his feet. He held out his hands and slid his feet forward one careful step after another, until his fingers hit something cool and solid. A wall, he confirmed, as he explored the surface with his hands. He fumbled along it till his fingers touched empty air. A doorway. Was it the one he'd come through? Rude had no idea, but through it he went.

His chest had grown so tight he had to fight for every breath, and each lungful of tar-black air only pulled him deeper into the abyss. He would drown in this darkness before he'd ever find his way out. Should he call out to the others? What if Reno was right, and someone – or something – was preying on them?

No. The others would call for him when they realized he was missing. It was better to stay quiet and wait.

He couldn't stay still, though; not when there was a risk he might hear that voice again. He would keep moving, keep himself busy–

"Huh?"

Rude froze. It was barely a word, but he instantly knew Reno's voice. Or... what sounded like Reno's voice. Rude remained still, pricking his ears.

"Whoa, hey, what are you doing?" The words trembled with nervous laughter as they echoed in the darkness. Definitely Reno's voice, and not too far away.

"You don't like that?" Cissnei's voice was a husky purr that Rude had never heard out of her before.

"No!" A brittle laugh. "Well, yes, but not– I mean... Uh..."

Guided on their voices, Rude crept forward in the dark. He fumbled through a doorway he couldn't remember passing through, and when he spotted a faint light on his left, relief filled his chest like a gulp of cool air. The glow seemed to be coming from another passage, in the same direction as the hushed conversation he was following.

"Is it her?"

"What? If you mean the other night, that was just... Uh, y'know..."

Rude saw their flashlights as soon as he rounded the corner, right at the other end of the gloomy tunnel. Hers was on the ground, angled haphazardly in their direction. Reno still gripped his torch in his hand, the one closest to Rude. He was flattened against the wall, while Cissnei stood before him. Rude could make out her hand against the dark fabric of Reno's jacket, stroking along his arm.

"You knew me long before you met her. How did she manage to catch your eye with nothing more than a smile? Why don't you ever see me?"

"Huh? She doesn't smile, does she?"

The more Rude heard of their conversation, the more hairs it raised on the back of his neck. Mentally cursing the darkness, he made his way toward them as quickly as he dared.

Shadows danced in the beam of Cissnei's flashlight as she took a step and closed the distance between them. She reached up to pluck the open collar of Reno's shirt, then slowly smoothed out the fabric with her palms.

"Have you never thought of me that way?"

Reno stood paralyzed as her hands caressed his chest, her fingertips slipping in under his jacket.

"Oh, fuck," he breathed. "This so ain't the place for this, Ciss."

"We can go somewhere else, then," she cooed as she traced his jaw with a fingertip. "Right now. Just you and me."

"That's... We can't just..."

But he didn't back away as she grabbed the lapels of his jacket and pulled his face closer to hers.

"Reno!" Rude called.

Reno whipped his head around. The moment he saw his partner, his shoulders sagged; whether from relief or frustration, Rude couldn't tell. Cissnei just froze, blinking. A small frown appeared on her face as she stared at her fists, still tight around the fabric of his jacket.

"What... Where did you–" She raised her face to Reno's. The moment their eyes met, she yanked her hands off him and leapt away. "What the hell are you doing?"

"What am I doin'? You're the one who pounced me!"

She stared at him, disbelief plain on her face.

"It was you...?"

"The hell's that s'posed to mean?" Reno's question held bite, and the confusion on his face had curdled into a scowl.

"Cissnei," Rude cut in urgently. "What did you see?"

She spun around and took in the clammy rock walls that closed around them. Rude could see the hope drain from her face, and every second of it wrung his guts.

"Costa," she whispered. "I was back in Costa. It was warm and sunny, I was at the beach, and..." She hid her face in her hands. "Fuck."

"So that's what it was." Reno's voice was trembling; the cone of his flashlight trembled, too. "That's all it takes, huh? The first whiff of some SOLDIER boy nookie and you'll drop the mission, just like that?"

"There was no mission! There was no Shinra! No Turks, no SOLDIER, just..." With a brittle laugh, she pinched the bridge of her nose. "Why the hell am I telling you this?"

"I had your back, you know! When Tseng wanted to pull you, I stood up for ya! I told him to keep you on, I told him he'd gotten the wrong idea!"

"Oh, save it!" Cissnei let her hand fall and glowered up at him. "I know you're here to spy on me! Everything else is just your bullshit, isn't it?"

"What?" Reno squeaked. "The Prof is missin', something in here is fuckin' with our heads, and you're callin' this my bullshit?"

The tunnel was filling with echoes, a current of accusing whispers layered under their shouts. The pressure behind Rude's eyes was building again.

"What about Rude?" Cissnei spat. "Did Tseng send you here to spy on him, too?"

"Are you even listenin' to me? I ain't here to spy on ya! Tseng just sent you here with me 'cause he wanted to give you guys a chance to clear your fuckin' heads!"

Rude stared at his partner in shocked disbelief. Clear his head? Clear his fucking head? As if he was some kind of liability that couldn't keep it together on the job?

Cissnei's lip curled.

"I knew it," she growled. "I fucking knew it!" She shoved Reno in the chest, sending him stumbling back. "Gods! I wish I'd stayed stuck in that hallucination. At least I was free from fucking Tseng in there. Free from you!"

Her voice rang in the sudden stillness. Reno just stared at her, silent, his jaw locked tight. Cissnei met him dead on.

Then she frowned, and blinked repeatedly. With a soft, frustrated noise she turned away from them and rubbed her temples with unsteady fingers.

Rude blinked, too. The pressure was gone. He reached up to wipe his forehead – and flinched as his gloved fingers brushed against the bump above his left eye. The pulsing ache in his elbow was returning. For a while there, he'd forgotten his injuries.

"Cissnei," he said, "I need–"

A sharp shriek made them freeze where they stood. It was a woman's scream, a scream of such terror it made Rude's blood run cold.

"Fuck," Reno spat and took off toward the sound.

Rude sprung into action a second later, but Reno was rapidly disappearing down the tunnel. Rude followed the swinging arc of his flashlight, his own pounding footsteps guided by Cissnei's light behind him. As they stumbled around a corner, he recognized the passage they'd taken before his mad dash through the dark. Reno had halted, halfway to the stairwell chamber, frantically looking from side to side.

Another blood-curdling shriek pierced the thunder in Rude's ears – and ceased in a final thud. Before Rude could reach Reno, he had bolted off again. He stopped at the threshold to the stairwell, pulled out his gun, and peeked in. Then he dove around the corner and vanished.

Rude swore and struggled to pump his legs faster, but the throbbing in his head had built to an agonizing roar. Cissnei sprinted past him and disappeared from view; Rude stumbled in the sudden, disorienting darkness that had swallowed her.

A blaze of light shot into the tunnel, out from the mouth of the stairwell. A flashlight, on the ground – placed there, or fallen?

Rude had enough presence of mind to stop at the corner and peek around it. The light spilling out came from all the way inside the stairwell. Beyond, he could barely make out a pair of silhouettes hunched over a tangled heap on the ground. As he crept closer, he confirmed that the two shadowy figures were Reno and Cissnei. And the third...

Reno looked up as Rude barreled into the chamber. His face was ashen and hollow in the shadow of the flashlight.

"She's dead."

Rude looked down. The bloodied, lifeless face of Mrs. Gubbins stared back up at him.