Chapter 15: Return to Nibelheim

Max and Pandora stared at Reno and for sometime the three were stood there staring at each other. Eventually Max broke the awkward silence. "What kind of problem?"

Reno shrugged in response, "I don't know, Rufus hasn't told anyone yet, he said he wanted to wait until everyone was present and that includes you two now come on!" Reno ran back up the steps and he entered the building Max and Pandora followed him without a word and all three of them walking into the meeting room.

"There you are!" Barret yelled as he walked over to Max and Pandora, "where've you been?"

Pandora grinned, "just into town," she answered calmly.

"You were out all night?"

"I guess we lost track of the time."

"Lost track of the time my ass!" Cid cut in, "how long were you planning on keeping us waiting?!"

Max glared at Cid, "does it matter?" He asked, "we're here now."

Cid was about to answer but Rufus interrupted. "Touching though this little reunion is," he said in his usual manner, "I called this meeting for a reason, now will you two kindly sit down so we can get this over with." Max, Pandora and Barret walked over to the table in silence and they sat down in their seats. Satisfied Rufus started the meeting. "Now, as you already know, I have agents posted all over the world to make sure everything is running smoothly and that we don't have anymore disasters. Some of my agents contacted me yesterday to say that there was a problem."

Cid banged his fist on the table irritably, "just cut to the damn chase will ya!" Cid yelled impatiently.

Rufus glared at Cid, "I was just getting there if you'll give me a chance!" Rufus snapped at the pilot. "Now where was I? Oh yes, my agents told me that the Mako Reactor in Mount Nibel has been reactivated."

There was a stunned silence as everyone stared at Rufus in shock, not daring to believe it. It was Tifa who broke the silence. "I thought the area was sealed off," she said not taking her eyes off Rufus.

"It was sealed off," Rufus replied, "in fact the Nibelheim reactor was the first one we closed, mainly because of its history, which I regret to say wasn't a good one."

Cloud sighed, "Nibelheim…" Cloud didn't have to say anymore, all his friends knew what Cloud was thinking about. Sephiroth going insane, Jenova, the fire and all the experiments he had to endure at the hands of Hojo. "Why Nibelheim? Why now?"

"At this moment in time, I'm not sure," Rufus answered, "but it might have something to do with the abundant supply of Mako within the mountains."

"Mako?" Drogo asked curiously, "As in, spirit energy?"

Tifa nodded, "you remember when we saw the Life Stream in the Northern Cave?" She questioned Drogo. Drogo nodded, "it's unrefined Mako, and Mount Nibel is covered in it."

"Indeed," Rufus agreed with Tifa, "that was the reason why the reactor was built there in the first place."

"But Jenova isn't there anymore," Cloud commented, "and as far as I know we destroyed her. What else could possibly be of value?"

"A lot of research was carried out in Nibelheim," Reeve answered, "more specifically the Shinra Mansion and the reactor. The reactor in Mount Nibel was among the first to be built."

"Interesting though this history is," Lance cut in, "but why is it active when it's supposed to be closed down?"

"That's what you're going to find out," Rufus answered, "I need you all to go the reactor in Mount Nibel, to find out what's going on and put a stop to it."

Cloud sighed, "oh joy, as if I didn't have enough nightmares about that place, I have to return there again."

"It'll be ok Cloud," Tifa took hold of Cloud's hand and she gave him a reassuring look, "you won't be alone this time."

"Yeah," Barret agreed with Tifa, "we've got your back."

"You guys have always got my back," Cloud replied, he couldn't help but smile. "You're right, this is a fear I have to face."

"So I guess this means we'll be going back to Nibelheim?" Max asked head a slightly amused expression as he remembered the hole he had made when he crash landed into the Shinra mansion when he was first teleported to this world.

Cloud nodded, "yeah," he answered, he wasn't happy with the whole idea of returning to Nibelheim but he knew that they had to if they were to put a stop to whoever was responsible for all of this. "let's just get this over with."

"Right," Rufus responded, "make your way to Nibelheim, an agent will meet you there and give you the full briefing. Reno, Rude, I still want you two to keep in touch with me if anything happens."

"Yes sir," Reno and Rude replied in perfect unison.

"Good, I want everyone to report back here after you've sorted out everything in Nibelheim," Rufus continued, "so we can plan our next move, meeting adjourned."

Everyone got up from their seats and filed out of the meeting room, ten minutes later and everyone was on the Sierra which was making its way to Nibelheim. Cloud was stood on the bridge looking out of the window at the scenery. He had a horrible feeling in the pit of his stomach, he remembered all too well what happened all those years ago in Nibelheim and that anything that involved Nibelheim in anyway couldn't be good. Cloud was so wrapped up in his thoughts that he didn't even notice Tifa come up behind him.

"Gil for your thoughts," she said suddenly causing Cloud to nearly leap out of his skin. He turned round quickly to see Tifa stood behind him.

"Tifa," he spoke up still in shock. "I didn't hear you coming."

Tifa stared intensively at Cloud, "are you thinking about Nibelheim?" She asked curiously.

Cloud sighed, "I can't stop thinking about it," Cloud admitted, "ever since Rufus told us about the reactor being reactivated it brought back a lot of bad memories."

"But that's in the past now," Tifa reminded Cloud.

"Yeah I know."

"Cloud, you can't keep letting that one event that happened years ago haunt your life," Tifa told him, she placed her hand on his shoulder to reassure him. "You have to accept that what happened happened and move on."

"I know," Cloud said again, he looked at Tifa and smiled at her, "you're right, I can't let what happened years ago take over my life. I have to move on."

"Don't worry," Tifa continued to reassure Cloud, "it's not like you're going there alone."

Cloud was about to respond when Cid interrupted them by speaking on the intercom so that everyone who wasn't on the bridge could hear him. "Alright everybody listen up because I'm only gonna say this once! We're approaching Nibelheim so you all better be prepared! Got it! Oh and Max get out of that damn engine room! I've told you enough times already!"

Cloud smiled as he heard Cid yelling at Max through the intercom for…well he had lost count. "I guess we better get ready." Cloud and Tifa left the bridge and went to their room to prepare their weapons or any items they might need. Half an hour later and the Sierra had landed near Nibelheim and the whole group was walking into town where they met a young woman wearing a WRO uniform, she smiled when she saw Cloud and the others approach her.

"You must be Cloud Strife," she said as Cloud shook her hand, "Rufus told me you and your friends were coming."

"Yeah," Cloud replied, "what's going on?"

"Well," the woman began to explain, "as Rufus has no doubt already told you, the reactor up in the mountains has been reactivated after being closed down for four years. There are guards standing in front of the entrance to mount Nibel, they've denied access to civilians."

"Did you see who went up there?" Max asked.

The agent shook her head, "not in great detail no, all I saw were two men and a woman walk up the mountain. I didn't get a good look at them."

Tifa turned to Cloud, "you don't think there are more of those necromical copies do you?"

"It's a possibility," Cloud answered. "Alright, we'll head up to the reactor."

"Wait," the agent stopped them, "there's more."

"What is it?" Cloud questioned.

"Rufus didn't tell you this, probably because we only found out as you were on your way here," the agent explained. "But there's also strange things going on in the old Shinra mansion," at these words the agent pointed to the mansion.

Everyone looked at each other, "strange things!" They all exclaimed at once.

The agent nodded, "yes," she replied, "although we're not sure what, we haven't had a chance to investigate the mansion yet and after what we've heard about what happened at the Northern Cave, we don't want to risk it."

"So you want us to investigate the mansion as well as the reactor," Max cut in. The agent smiled at Max.

"You catch on quick," she said, "of course you'll have to split up into two groups."

"Right," Cloud replied, "let's see, me, Max, Tifa, Pandora, Nightshade, Drogo, Reno and Vincent will investigate the mansion. The rest of you can investigate the reactor, we'll call each other on the PHS if anything happens, any questions?" Everyone shook their heads, Cloud smiled satisfied. "Good, let's move out."

The groups went their own separate ways, Barret, Cid, Yuffie, Red XIII, Cait Sith, Rude, Isis, Sunny, Lance and Angel made their way to the reactor. Meanwhile Cloud, Tifa, Vincent, Reno, Max, Pandora, Drogo and Nightshade walked through the gate and entered the mansion.

"Wow!" Pandora exclaimed as her voice echoed through the large hallway. "This place is huge!"

"Sshhh," Cloud said as he gave Pandora a warning stare, "keep your voice down, it carries in an old place like this."

"Ok," Pandora whispered back.

Vincent looked around him seemingly indifferent but deep down inside he was still in pain. Like Cloud, this mansion had brought Vincent nothing but pain and misery. "Hmmm," was all he said.

"And I thought Rude was bad when it came to one liners," Reno joked, Vincent however wasn't amused and he glared evilly at Reno.

"Let's just get this over with," Cloud quickly cut in before Vincent could respond to Reno's witty remark.

"So where do we go from here?" Nightshade asked as he removed his shades, cleaned them on his coat and put them back on to his face, but not before everyone saw his gleaming red eyes.

"Your eyes…" Tifa stammered as she pointed towards Nightshade's eyes.

Nightshade turned round to face Tifa, "what about them?" He asked, he wasn't angry, on the contrary he was used to people asking about his eyes and it didn't bother him as much as it used.

"Their so…red," Tifa continued choosing her words carefully so she didn't offend Nightshade.

"Yeah," Reno added, "what gives? They have to be the creepiest looking eyes I have ever seen. They're even creepier than Vincent's eyes, and they're pretty scary, especially when he glares at you."

Nightshade scowled at Reno for a few seconds before he turned his attention to Tifa again, "it's because of my genes," he answered.

"You mean the fact that you're half Kitsune, half Dark Kitsune?" Tifa asked, she remembered everything that Drogo had told her on their trip to Coral.

Nightshade nodded, "yeah, I inherited the eye colour off my father. He was full Dark Kitsune, but he was the only one that was decent."

"So that means you have a Dark Form just like Max," Reno butted in again. Nightshade turned to look at Reno.

"Why so surprised?" He asked not taking his eyes off the Turk, "Max is my son after all, we carry the same genes."

"Anyway," Cloud interrupted before anyone could say anything else, "the sooner we investigate this place the sooner we can leave. We need to find the room with the secret staircase."

Drogo stared at Cloud, "there's a secret staircase?" He asked, he'd heard about old mansions and secret staircase but he had never seen one.

Cloud nodded, "yeah," he answered, "the stairs lead down to the basement, anything even remotely unusual or sinister happened in the basement. That would be a logical place to start."

The group walked up the stairs to the first floor landing in silence unsure at what kind of creatures were lurking in the dark, damp corners of the mansion. Fortunately no monsters appeared to fight the group. Maybe something was scaring them and keeping them in hiding. Eventually the group ended up in the room with the secret staircase, and the Max shaped hole in the wall was still there since he had fallen through it.

"Eh he…" Max laughed ruefully as he ruffled his hair, "sorry about that," he apologised.

"Don't worry about it Max," Cloud waved Max's apology. "This mansion's been around for years, I'm surprised it's not fallen apart yet."

Tifa looked down the all too familiar steps. "So, are we going down there or not?"

Cloud nodded, "Let's go."

The group proceeded down the spiral staircase, when they were half way down the stairs Max heard Zack's voice in his head. "This place brings back a lot of bad memories," he commented.

"Zack?" Max almost yelled in surprise. "Is Aerith with you?"

"I'm right here Max," Aerith answered.

"Why does it bring back bad memories?" Max asked Zack.

"Well," Zack explained, "this was where my life was turned upside down. I guess I have Hojo to thank for that."

"Hojo?"

"Hojo was the Head of the Science Department in Shinra," Zack answered, "or as I like to call him, the murderous raving lunatic."

"Surely he can't have been that bad."

Aerith and Zack paused for moment before they spoke again. "Hojo was a horrid man," Aerith informed Max, "he killed my parents, experimented on me, Zack, Cloud, Vincent, Red XIII and countless others and…"

"He's proof that dinosaurs once roamed the Earth," Zack interrupted Aerith.

"Zack!" Aerith yelled at Zack.

"What?" Zack retorted in defence, "it's true, the first time I saw that guy I was thinking to myself, wow, what is holding this guy together?"

"Wow Zack," Max said wittily, "Your sarcasm knows no bounds."

Zack laughed, "Thanks Max, anyway, we got word that Hojo's back from the dead.

"What?"

"Hojo's been brought back to life," Aerith answered, "I'm guessing from the same person who's brought all the others back to life."

"So there's a necromical copy of Hojo lurking around," Max commented, "So where's his good half?"

"What good half?" Zack asked.

"You mean he doesn't have a good side?"

"This is Hojo we're talking about," Zack informed Max, "he experimented on, tortured, maimed and even killed humans and animals for what he claimed to be in the name of science. But really he was doing it for fun. Me and Cloud have been on the receiving end of some of those experiments and it wasn't pretty."

Max sighed, "great, a mad scientist."

"A mad scientist, that's an understatement," Zack muttered sarcastically, "Psychotic is more what I'd say."

"Yeah, thanks Zack, your sarcasm never ceases to amaze me, is there anything else?"

"No," Aerith stated.

"Nope," Zack replied.

"Thanks," Max replied gratefully.

"You're welcome," Aerith said.

"We'll let you know if we find out anything else," Zack added before he and Aerith disappeared.

The group had walked down the stairs and they ended up in the corridor where Cloud had first found Max and had fought that zombie together. The group continued to walk down the corridor passing the coffin room where Vincent had spent the passed 30 years sleeping. They reached the door at the end of the corridor which led to the lab, the group entered the room where Cloud found that it was exactly the way it was the last time they saw it. Cloud sighed as he walked over to the two stasis tubes in the corner of the room, he took a closer look at the tubes and he saw the messages that he and Zack had carved into the glass as a means to communicate with each other without Hojo noticing. "Oh Zack," Cloud said to himself, "I'm so sorry." Max walked up to Cloud and he placed his hand on his friend's shoulder, Cloud turned round and he smiled at Max. "I'm ok," he said.

Max looked at the tubes, "so this is where you and Zack had been kept in for all those years?" He asked Cloud.

Cloud nodded, "yeah," he answered, "five long years."

"No wonder you went insane," Max commented, "I would, if I was cooped up for so long."

"It's ok," Cloud told Max, "it's in the past now, this place doesn't scare me as much as it used to."

Max was about to say something when he heard a voice behind him. It was a male voice but it sounded unusually high pitched and scratchy.

"Well, well, look who decided to return."

Meanwhile Barret, Cid, Yuffie, Red XIII, Cait Sith, Rude, Isis, Sunny, Lance and Angel slowly made their way up mount Nibel. It wasn't so bad for Red XIII who was way ahead of everyone, Cait Sith, Lance and Isis were close behind him. With Cait Sith being animatronic and Isis and Lance being cyborgs they didn't get tired from the climb. Cid, Barret and Rude followed silently behind, but Sunny, Angel and Yuffie were lagging behind.

"Phew," Angel panted, "how much further do we have to climb?" She asked as she struggled to keep up.

"Not much further now!" Red called down to everyone, "we're half way there!"

"Why couldn't I have gone with the other group?" Yuffie complained not bothering to keep her voice down.

"Just shut the hell up!" Cid yelled at Yuffie, "You've done nothing but complain since we started climbing this friggin mountain. Your constant whining is giving me a bloody headache!"

"I was just saying that's all!" Yuffie shot back, "why couldn't I have gone with the other group there would've been less climbing?!"

"Probably because Cloud didn't want to put up with your complaining!" Barret shot back agreeing with Cid. "Nobody asked you to come!"

"What you think I'd let you guys have all the fun!" Yuffie shouted as she stormed up towards Barret, Cid and Rude leaving Sunny and Angel behind.

"Then stop your whining!" Barret shouted back, "I don't hear Sunny or Angel complaining!" Everyone looked back at these words and they saw the two women struggling to keep up, but they kept going never the less and they didn't complain once. Lance turned round and walked back towards Angel and Sunny, Barret did the same.

"Are you ok?" Lance asked Angel as he held his hand out to her.

"I'm fine," Angel answered, she smiled at Lance and she took hold of her hand. Lance helped Angel up the cliff and Barret did the same for Sunny. It wasn't long before everyone was back together again. Yuffie saw Angel and Sunny getting help and she glared at Cid.

"Hey!" She yelled, "I was having trouble keeping up too! Why didn't anyone help me?!"

"Yuffie!" Cid yelled, "That cliff edge looks mighty appealing right now, and if you don't shut your shit hole I'll push you off said cliff edge, understand!"

Yuffie sighed, "fine, I won't say another word."

Everyone continued to walk up the cliff in silence. Eventually they reached the reactor. "Well here we are," Cid remarked, "the reactor, damn just standing outside the damn thing is giving me the heebie-jeebies."

"Well," Yuffie said impatiently, "let's get inside and get this over with!" She ran up the steps and entered the reactor before anyone else could say anything. A few minutes later and everyone was inside the reactor.

"So this is what a reactor looks like on the inside," Sunny commented she was intrigued by all the machinery.

"This was one of the first reactors that was ever built," Cait Sith informed everyone, as he hopped along the catwalk.

"Why was a reactor built at the top of a mountain?" Angel asked.

"Because mount Nibel was so abundant with Mako, did you see those brightly coloured caves?"

Sunny nodded, "Yeah."

"That's Mako," Cait Sith answered, "the next room is just across this catwalk come on."

Everyone followed Cait Sith and they entered the room with the pods, the room where Jenova used to be was at the opposite side of the room. Isis read the inscription on the door, "Hmmm, Jenova…interesting."

"Jenova was an alien organism that landed on this planet over 2000 years ago," Cid informed Isis. "But we destroyed her, apart from the odd Jenova cells that reside within Cloud."

"I see," Isis replied intrigued.

Everyone continued to search the reactor to look for some clue as to who was responsible for reactivating the reactor, the whirring of the machines was unbearably loud. Angel walked round the corner and was looking through the windows of one of the pods to see a grotesque looking monster within it.

"Aaahhh!" Angel cried out as she fell to the ground.

"Angel!" Lance yelled as he ran up to her. "Are you ok?" He asked as he helped Angel to her feet.

"I'm fine," Angel answered, "what is that thing?" She questioned as she pointed at the pod her hand was shaking.

"What thing?" Lance asked her.

"Look through the window," Angel told Lance.

Lance walked over to the pod and he looked through the window where he could see the same monster that Angel saw. He stepped away from the window and he walked back over to Angel. "It's ok, it's currently in stasis."

"But what if it…" Angel was about to ask but Lance placed a finger on her lips.

"From the looks of it, I'd say it's been in stasis for years. It's not gonna wake up now."

"Are you sure?" Angel asked she stared fearfully at the pod.

"I'm sure," Lance answered and he stroked her hair reassuringly, "and even if it did I wouldn't let it touch you." Angel kissed Lance for a moment and she walked off to continue with the search. Lance sighed and he took a step forward when he got the strange feeling that he was being watched. "Huh?" Lance turned round quickly but no one was there. Lance merely shrugged and he continued walking. Angel was a little further ahead and she was so deeply immersed in her surroundings that she failed to notice a shadowy figure leap from the pipes above the room wielding a double bladed weapon which was aiming for Angel. Lance saw this and he started running towards Angel. "Angel look out!" He called out to Angel, she turned round just in time to see Lance jump towards her, he grabbed Angel and pulled her out of harms way just in time as the blade sliced into the ground where Angel was a few seconds ago. The mysterious figure stood up just as the rest of the group noticed. The shadowy figure turned to face the group and grinned at them before speaking.

"Well, well, what do we have here?"

Chapter 15 is done, sorry it's a bit shorter than some of the previous chapters but because I had so much planned for this section of the story I couldn't fit it all on to one chapter so the second part will continue on Chapter 16 which should be coming up soon. Enjoy.