11. Quarrel

The three Turks stared at the broken body on the floor. The beam of a flashlight transformed Mrs. Gubbins's face into harsh white peaks and sunken hollows. Her mouth gaped like an empty cavern.

Rude felt numb, drained. He looked up; the wooden staircase spiraled up the tower until it vanished into darkness. She must have fallen. She'd tried to run, and had taken a wrong step on her way up. But what could possibly make a woman like Gubbins run?

"It's high time we got the fuck outta here," Reno said, his voice as empty as the thing at their feet.

"What?" Cissnei stepped in between him and the corpse, forcing him to look at her. "What about Rayleigh?"

"Fuck Rayleigh!"

Cissnei lowered her chin, and her stare went sharp.

"I thought you already did."

"The hell's that got to do with anythin'?"

"You're such a hypocrite," she hissed. "Who's the one 'fuckin' around' on this mission, huh?"

Reno's jaw tightened at her mocking drawl. He stepped right up to her, towering over her.

"See, that's the difference right there," he growled. "Fucking is all it was. No feelings to mess things up, no cover to blow, no surveillance to compromise. I ain't screwin' the goddamn target!"

"Yes, you are! She is the mission!"

"No, the mission is to 'evaluate the mansion's security and assess local threats'. Let's fuckin' assess, shall we?" He pointed at the dead body at their feet. "Gubbins wasn't scared of us Turks. Hell, she wasn't scared of nothing, since she worked here for fuckin' decades. She knew this place inside out, knew what was wrong with it, and look where it got her!" He threw out his arms, his teeth bared in a vicious grin. "Based on the evidence right in front of us, I assess this local threat to be off the goddamn chart. That's it, job's done. Now let's get the fuck outta here!"

"We don't just assess the security," Cissnei snapped. "We are the security, and we've got high-ranking Shinra personnel who need it! The job is not done, and I'm not leaving until it is! I'm not failing this mission!"

That jolted Rude back to reality. Reno didn't have anything to prove to Tseng and the chief, he realized – but she did, and so did Rude. If they blew a simple low-priority mission like this, their careers were as good as over.

He stared at the old woman's corpse at their feet. He'd been convinced there was something wrong with her, that she had to be… supernatural, somehow – yet there she lay, dead and broken. Another human being, just like him. Just like Rayleigh.

The professor was convinced all this had a scientific explanation. If she was right, and they'd abandon her here because they were running from a fucking mold…

"Cissnei is right. Job's not done yet."

She gave him a sharp nod, then looked back at Reno.

"What's it going to be, then? Are you going to ditch us down here too?"

Reno's chest heaved higher and higher as he scowled at them each in turn.

"Fuck!" He kicked at a loose stone. It skittered down the passage and vanished into darkness. "How the hell are we supposed to find her, huh? And how the hell are we supposed to find our way out after?" He jabbed a finger at the corpse of Mrs. Gubbins. "She's the one who knew the place!"

"Would you just calm the fuck down?" Cissnei hissed. "Look, Rayleigh has been sneaking down here for days. We find her, she shows us the way out. Okay?"

"No, not okay! Did you forget what just happened to ya? What happened to me the other night? The hell are you plannin' to do about that, huh? Got any materia that stops hallucinations?"

She glared up at him. She didn't say anything, but her nostrils flared with every breath.

"Have you listened to yourself lately?" Reno's voice had risen to something shrill and brittle. "You keep spoutin' all this paranoid bullshit, like it's all some great big conspiracy! Rude keeps tryin' to use me as a punchin' bag, and I'm... Hell, I'm just a big fuckin' mess! We're not ourselves, okay? Whatever this is, it's screwin' with our heads!"

"Yes." Cissnei spoke with deathly calm. "Yes, it is. It's making you a fucking coward."

Reno went completely still.

"The hell did you just call me?"

"You heard me."

He took a step toward her, eyes wild in his pale white face, and Rude hurried to fall in at Cissnei's side. He had seen that look on Reno before.

Reno stopped in his tracks. He stared at Rude, and something finally broke in his expression.

"Fine," he spat. "Guess I am a fucking coward, then!" As soon as he'd said it, it was as if the wind went out of him. He looked away and when he spoke again, his voice was trembling. "I gotta be, if you both think it."

"We don't," Cissnei said, softer now, "Like you said, this isn't you. It's these hallucinations. But you can beat them. We can. Only one person gets these visions at a time, right? That's how we can beat this."

"Huh?" Reno cast her a wary glance. "What are you on about?"

"Think about it. It's only been one of us at a time. Rude and I snapped you out of it yesterday, and you two did the same for me just now. If we stick together… We can keep each other safe."

Rude dug through his memory. It seemed to fit, he realized. Could it really be that simple?

"You don't know that. And even if you're right, it might still happen to one of us. We might see... things. I don't–" Reno cut himself off and swallowed hard. "I mean, I..."

He scoffed and spun on his heel, turning away from them both. His hand trembled as he covered his eyes.

Cissnei's face softened. She closed the distance between them and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"I know," she said quietly, then glanced at Rude. "We know." She wrapped her fingers around Reno's wrist and pulled down his hand, then waited until he looked at her. "But we're Turks. Turks with a job to do. We find Rayleigh, we get her out. Then we leave."

His gaze sank slowly, until he was staring at his shoes.

"Or aren't you a Turk anymore?" Cissnei's voice had acquired an edge. "Is that what you're saying?"

Reno whipped his head back up and his eyes flashed like bolts of lightning. She didn't flinch; she just stared him down, until he finally looked away. Emotions flickered across his face, too quick to read – and then the battle was over, and his jaw locked tight with resolve. He straightened up and met Rude's eyes.

"You in, partner?"

"We're Turks." Those few words said it all.

"We finish the mission." Reno drew a deep breath as he stared out into the gloom. "No matter what."

Cissnei squeezed his shoulder.

"We stick together," she said. "We watch each other."

They agreed to head right this time. The very first room they checked was stacked with ancient coffins.

"Oh, you gotta be kiddin' me," Reno groaned. "Fuck this place. All of it."

"Family crypt?" Rude guessed.

"Let's just move on," Cissnei muttered. "I doubt Rayleigh is hiding in one of those."

It soon became clear this part of the cellar was different in other ways, too. These were no longer tunnels carved into the raw rock, but corridors dressed with stone and dusty brick. The flagstones under their feet were uniformly cut, laid out in neat, straight rows, with bulging fungal growths pushing up between the seams. The storage rooms did not hold rotting wine barrels, but crates and fat steel drums. Rude spotted the red Shinra diamond on several of them.

"Look," Cissnei whispered. The circle of her beam rested upon another flashlight, abandoned in the middle of the corridor. "Seems we're on the right track."

"Guess she can't have gone far in pitch darkness." Reno aimed his light down the corridor and lit up a pair of massive metal doors at the other end. "Looks like that's the only way onward, yo."

The doors groaned reluctantly as they rolled them open, revealing a circular chamber that they gingerly stepped down into. A low fog clung to the floor and curled around their boots; out of it rose chunky stone pillars that converged on a central vault high above their heads. Rude had picked up the newly-found flashlight and probed the alcoves between the pillars with it, lighting up the spines of moldering books and the dials and signal bulbs of old-fashioned control panels.

He let his light linger on the row of tall glass cylinders that lined one alcove. They were large enough to hold a person and appeared cloudy in the light, as if they were filled with smoke. The ones in Hojo's lab back at HQ were a sleeker design, framed in stainless steel instead of copper, but Rude knew a Mako tank when he saw one.

He inspected one closer and made out a web of scratches on the glass. As they caught the light, he realized the scratches were on the inside.

"Professor?"

Rude turned toward Cissnei's voice. She had shone her flashlight across the chamber, at the far wall, where it opened up into the yawning blackness of an archway. Framed in her cone of light stood Rayleigh, her back to them, staring into the dark.

Reno was already making his way toward her.

"Prof?" he called. "Hey Prof, you hear me?"

She took a slow step forward into the archway. Reno swore and lunged for her. When he grabbed her arm, she finally turned her head to gaze at him.

"Yo, Rayleigh!" Reno snapped his fingers in front of her face. "Anyone home?"

At first she didn't react at all. Then she flinched, and blinked repeatedly.

"You with us now?" he asked.

She looked around, frowning. Slowly, she pulled her arm out of Reno's grasp.

"What… is going on?" Her voice was frail, with no trace of her usual poise.

"Hopin' that's what you'll tell us. We heard you've been comin' down here quite a lot. Would hate to think you've been sneakin' away for nothin'."

"But..." Rayleigh's forehead was creased with confusion. Her eyes were fixed upon the examination table in the center of the room.

Or perhaps it was meant for autopsies – the table was a crude metal slab that certainly looked a lot like Rude's idea of an autopsy table. It had a trolley of surgical instruments parked beside it. He preferred to think they had been used on the dead.

Rude averted his eyes, his stomach tight. Had the air grown thicker? It seemed harder to breathe.

"Reno," Cissnei called.

She stood before a bulky metal hatch as large as the door they had come through, with the back of her hand pressed against her nose. A round observation window was set into the hatch, its glass foggy with decades of grime. Below it was a wheel as wide as a human, which likely operated the thick bolts that protruded from all sides of the door. It hung slightly ajar.

Reno caught Rude's eye and gestured to Rayleigh with a flick of his head, then jogged over to Cissnei. She pointed at the bolts on the door and their corresponding holes in its heavy frame as she muttered something Rude couldn't make out. Reno studied them, then poked his head into the chamber beyond. When he pulled his head back, he was frowning.

"Rayleigh, did you open this?"

The professor looked up.

"A couple of days ago... Maybe?" She shook her head. "I don't remember when, it wasn't important–"

"Before or after we hooked up?"

She started and glanced at Rude and Cissnei. She looked none too pleased when she turned back to the redhead. Perhaps it was the lack of surprise she had found on their faces.

"Before," she bit out.

"What did you find?" Rude asked him.

"Dunno, that's why I'm askin'." Reno surveyed the room again. "Looks – and smells – like something was locked up in here."

"Excuse me?" Rayleigh asked, her voice ringing with disbelief. "I'm the one who unbolted the door. The room was empty."

"Yeah?" Reno pushed himself off the door and faced her fully. "Well, somethin' made me see shit that ain't real. What if it can also make you blind to stuff that is there?"

Rude crossed the chamber and shone his flashlight through the open door. He had to press his sleeve against his nose; the stench was vile. The chamber within was larger than he expected, almost as large as the laboratory itself. Drainage holes were set into the base of the walls at regular intervals. In one corner he could make out what appeared to be a pile of small bones.

"Are you serious?" Rayleigh's crisp arrogance had returned. "These labs have been empty for decades! How could anything have survived, trapped in there?"

"How the hell should I know? Ain't that a question for you science types?"

"And where, pray tell, is the science? All you have is conjecture!"

"I've felt this thing, okay? I've felt it inside my fuckin' head, we all have! It's got… intent, like it's–"

"That's what you have? You base all this on your capricious, fallible feelings?"

Her mockery stirred Rude's anger – but it wasn't the cruel, resentful malice that had festered inside him for days. This was simple irritation, contained and controlled. It was his own.

Neither Reno nor the professor would find any proof in shouting at each other. Rude took a deep breath, planted his nose in the crook of his elbow and ventured into the chamber.

The floor was sticky, creating a suction that clung to his shoes at every step. He squatted down by the mound of bones for a closer look, careful to keep his knees above the muck. The bones were thin and brittle like matchsticks. The skulls were blunt, compact things with pointy incisors. He could have fit several in the palm of his hand; the heap in front of him must have contained hundreds, if not thousands of them.

"Whatcha got there, buddy?"

Rude flinched even as he recognized the voice, muffled by the hand Reno held over his nose and mouth. The redhead hovered behind him, peeking over his shoulder.

"Rats. I think." He plucked a rib from the top of the pile, where the bones seemed moister than the others. "Looks like these are fresh."

"Well I'll be damned," Reno mumbled, then turned toward the door. "You hear that, Prof?" he crowed. "Something's been gobbling down a shitload of rats in here, yo!"

"All that proves is that a carnivorous creature was down here at some point in time. There's nothing that ties it to your claims of wild hallucinations."

Rude could see her face in Cissnei's flashlight; despite Rayleigh's rebuttal, her brow furrowed as she studied the chamber from the door.

Reno marched out of the holding chamber. As Rude rose and followed him, Reno planted his hands on his hips and gave the professor a long, hard glare.

"Wanna know why I ain't buyin' this mold theory? 'Cause I know damn well that thinkin' about my ma doesn't make me wanna play with knives." He turned toward Cissnei. "Ciss, think about that Costan daydream of yours. Is that really somethin' you could do? You couldn't just throw everythin' away for some guy and run off on us, could ya?"

Cissnei stared at him, frowning. Reno stared back, his eyebrows raised in part question, part plea. As the seconds stretched on, Rude couldn't help feeling he was missing some unspoken part of their conversation.

She slowly shook her head. Reno breathed out, and Rude realized that the redhead had been holding his breath the whole time.

"Point is," he said and cleared his throat. "Point is, it ain't us thinkin' these things. And if it ain't us..."

Behind him, Rayleigh scoffed.

"No, please, complete your sentence. I'm dying to know what kind of mystery creature would cause hallucinations like this."

Cissnei raised her flashlight and panned it around the ancient lab.

"Mystery creature or not," she muttered, "something was in that chamber, eating those rats." She strode back to the lab entrance and scanned the corridor beyond, too.

Rude's shoes were rimmed with brownish muck. As he tried to scrape them clean against the doorframe, his eyes fell upon his and Reno's footprints and idly followed their parallel lines back to the bone pile.

A thought popped into his head. He crouched down once more, flashlight in hand. The filth was trampled and uneven, more so after his and Reno's foray inside. He panned his light across it, studying the shadowed ridges and valleys.

A chill came over him when he found it. A print that wasn't theirs; a partial one, but enough remained for him to make out five odd elongated toes.

"Guys," he croaked. "I've got footprints. The ones from before."

The squabble behind him ceased. Soon, he sensed Reno lean over his shoulder.

"Fuck," he breathed. "You're right."

Reno looked up as Rayleigh joined them and pointed at the imprint.

"See this? This is the print we saw when that kid got fucked up. The three of us," he waved his finger between himself, Rude and Cissnei, "we all saw it. We ain't just makin' shit up!"

The professor bent down and squinted at the print.

"I see it, but I have no idea what made it," she muttered. "It could be some kind of local wildlife. We'll have to ask Mrs. Gubbins–"

"No we won't, 'cause we can't, 'cause she's fuckin' dead!"

Rayleigh rose up, her eyes wide. Slowly, her mouth opened.

"What...?"

"She's dead," he spat. "She came down here lookin' for ya, and now she's dead!"

She just stared at him.

"Looking for me?" she repeated slowly.

"Yeah, 'cause you'd fuckin' disappeared. Why the hell did you come down here, anyway?"

"I…" She looked over her shoulders, frowning at her surroundings again. "I didn't…"

"Yeah, you did, 'cause something brought you here, by makin' you follow whatever the hell you were seein'." He spread his arms. "C'mon, Prof, look around! This is clearly a lab, and we both know Hojo messes around with some pretty fucked-up shit. If he got his hands on the right materia, or the right 'specimen'... You don't think he could cook up that kinda mystery creature?"

Her hand trembled as she adjusted her glasses.

"I-I can't really say what... My team works with biotech, with biochemistry, not with–"

"Guys?" Cissnei hissed from the door. "I suggest we get the hell out of here before we wind up dead, too. You can argue in the damn truck!"

"Yeah," Reno said slowly, with one last sour look at the professor. "Let's get movin'."

One by one, they filed out of the lab. Reno and Cissnei went first, following the directions Rayleigh gave them. Rude brought up the rear and kept the floor lit for both himself and the professor. He found it hard to focus on anything past putting one foot in front of the other. The buzzing in his head was back. The sour Mako stink in that lab must have made his headache worse.

"Guys? I hear something. Like..." Cissnei was silent a few seconds. "Shit, I don't know how to describe it, but it's getting louder."

"I feel something," Reno mumbled. "Like a pressure, in my ears."

"Think something is ahead of us?"

"With my luck? Probably." He scoffed. "I swear, if we ever get out of here, the first thing I'm gonna do is get hammered at Goblins–"

Rude's head filled with the babble of a dozen voices. He smelled alcohol, felt the heat of bodies, saw dimly lit mirror shelves arrayed with greasy bottles. It was gone in a flash, but Rude had recognized the vintage posters from the Goblins bar.

"Fuck," Reno breathed. "Did you guys see that, too?"

"It's getting worse," Rayleigh mumbled, clutching her head.

"No," Rude said slowly, watching the doorway in front of them. "It's getting better. It's learning."

"What?" She was staring at him now. "What are you talking about?"

He wet his lips, as best he could with the dry slab that was his tongue.

"It started with… emotions. Fear, anger. Then hallucinations that I could feel, then ones I could hear and see, and now–"

Rayleigh held up a hand.

"Please, we mustn't be hasty in assigning some kind of… motive to all this." She spoke quickly, with a tremble in her voice. "The wrong conclusions could lead to dangerous mistakes. I mean, it could simply be that molds thrive down here and we've been exposed to a higher dose–"

"Would you shut up about your fuckin' mold already?" Reno groaned, pressing his knuckles into his temples.

"How about you shut up about your creature!" The professor threw up her arms. "Even if something is still down here, you have no proof that it can do what you–"

"Would you two shut up about everything!" Cissnei yelled, pivoting on her heel to face them. "I can't even hear myself think, much less hear what's in front of us!"

The silence rang loud and sudden in Rude's ears, like the vibrating wings of a thousand bees.

"Oh, shit," Reno cried. "Here it comes!"

A solid black, darker than the shadows, surged into the corridor ahead of them. Rude saw a maw full of sharp, glistening teeth; no, several rows of them; no, several maws, lined with fangs like a shark's–

"Run!"

"This way, this way!"

Someone crashed into Rude, grabbed onto him and dragged him along out of the room. Reno, he saw in the wild strobing of their flashlights. They fled down a passage, then another; steadying each other, pulling each other along. Reno ducked into a dark chamber and switched off his flashlight. Rude did the same and pressed himself flat against the wall, gulping down mouthfuls of air.

A minute passed, maybe several. Their heartbeats slowly quieted.

"Light," Reno whispered, then clicked on his flashlight.

Rude had shut his eyes at the warning, but it took him several blinking attempts to open them again.

"You see that thing?" Reno's voice was breathless, as if he was still recovering from their reckless sprint. His eyes were huge in his white face, darting this way and that as he looked around.

"I saw... something."

"Kept changing, yeah?"

"Yeah."

"Fuck." Reno slumped against the wall and wiped an unsteady hand down his face. "Did you see Ciss?"

Rude shook his head.

"We gotta find her. We gotta find 'em both."

Rude knew that he'd been in this low-ceilinged vault before, back when they were searching for the professor, but he had no idea where it was in relation to anything else. Not that it mattered. Cissnei and Rayleigh could have run anywhere.

Reno peeked out through the doorway, then headed left. Rude could only hope he had a better sense of where they were. They crept along the passage, peeking into each room on their way past, until they reached what appeared to be some kind of boiler room. Reno listened at the threshold, then looked back at Rude, who nodded. Reno slipped around the corner and inside – only to leap back out and flatten himself against the wall again. With a strangled groan, he hunched over and pressed the heels of his palms against his eyes.

"Tell me there's nothin' in there!"

Rude sucked in a deep breath, then poked his head around the doorframe. He shone his flashlight into the room and froze.

In the middle of the floor, amid the sooty bulks of cold furnaces, lay a crumpled figure dressed in black. Her face was turned away from the door, but he instantly knew her wavy copper hair.

Rude couldn't breathe. He stared at her, trying to determine if she was real or not.

"It's Cissnei."