Chapter 16: The Battle with Deepground

Cloud and the others stared in shock at the man who stood before them. He was a man of average height with a skinny frame, his skin was as pale as death itself, his long, black hair was tied back in a neat ponytail. His attire consisted of a black shirt and trousers which were covered by white overcoat. His glasses slid halfway down his nose revealing his beady eyes. He grinned evilly at the group.

"Hojo!" Cloud yelled as he jumped back hardly daring to believe that the mad scientist, the man who had ruined not only his life but the lives of countless others including the lives of his friends was back. The fact that Hojo was still stood there grinning in the same way he used to whenever he was conducting his twisted experiments had unnerved Cloud.

Hojo's grin grew wider as he recognised the man who stood before him. "Well, if it isn't my failed experiment," he drawled in his usual scratchy voice.

Cloud glared at Hojo, "The least you can do is remember my name!" Cloud shouted at Hojo. "It's Cloud!"

Hojo was impassive to Cloud's outburst, on the contrary he was deeply amused. "Oh yes," he said calmly, "now I remember, forgive me for not remembering the names of all my experiments but I've had so many over the years that I lose track sometimes. Not that it matters, they're just meaningless experiments to me."

Max was repulsed by Hojo's lack of respect for life, "Meaningless experiments!" He yelled at Hojo still disgusted by him, "they were living beings with real thoughts and real feelings and you violated them!"

Hojo turned his attention to Max and he smiled when he saw the young Kitsune. "Hmmm," he thought out loud as he started to study Max closely. "There's no need to ask who you are," he droned on as he paced round Max and scrutinised him closely causing Max's skin to crawl. "Yes," Hojo continued in the same fashion. "You're Maximillion Borealis, yes I've heard so much about you and your race. Yes you'd make a fine edition to my growing collection of strange and wonderful creatures, and so would the rest of your race."

Max glowered at Hojo, "How could you?!" He bellowed at Hojo causing the scientist to jump back with shock. "We Kitsunes aren't science projects that you can lock in a cage and experiment on! We're an ancient race that deserve to be treated with dignity and respect!"

Again Hojo didn't seem to be put off by Max's vehement response. "Is that so?" Hojo asked with a hint of menace in his voice, "like I said you seem like an interesting specimen nevertheless."

Hojo was focused on Max that he didn't notice that Vincent had moved from his spot and in a flash of red he was behind Hojo and pointed Cerberus to his head. "Insolent fool!" He yelled at Hojo, "you've run out of experiments so you have to use beings that come from another world, just when I thought you couldn't sink any lower!"

"Humph, Vincent Valentine, we meet again. Tell me, how's Lucrecia?"

A clicking sound could be heard as Vincent removed the safety from the Cerberus and he held his finger even tighter on the trigger. "Are you going to kill me Vincent?" Hojo asked with a hint of amusement in his voice, "I don't think you should." Vincent still kept his finger on the trigger but then he pulled his gun away from Hojo's head and he put it back in its holster. "I knew you wouldn't have the guts to kill me," he leered at Vincent. Vincent merely shrugged in reply, he knew that there was a time and a place to kill Hojo and this wasn't it. First the group wanted information.

"What are you doing here Hojo?" Vincent asked the scientist.

"That is a secret Vincent!" Hojo snapped at Vincent.

"Who brought you back to life?" Max asked he drew his sword out ready to strike at Hojo if he stepped out of line.

"I'm not about to divulge information as delicate as that!"

"Ok," Max replied choosing his words carefully to keep Hojo amused, he paced closer to Hojo still holding his sword out in front of him. "Tell me this, why did you feel the need to conduct twisted and inhumane experiments on countless innocent people and animals?"

"Aaahhh, you wish to know why I did all those so called cruel experiments, fine I'll tell you," Hojo began his monologue. "I'm a scientist, I conducted all my research and experiments in the name of science. You're a genius yourself, you should understand!"

Max stared at Hojo in disbelieve but nevertheless he remained strong. "Yeah, and they say there's a very fine line between genius and insanity," Max told Hojo, "I may have stepped across that line on the odd occasion but you ran a marathon across that line and made your home on it!"

"Are you saying I'm mad?"

"No, the word mad is an understatement as far as you're concerned!" Max spat the words like a bitter poison. "I'd say you're bordering along the lines psychotic!"

Hojo glared at Max, "How dare you call me psychotic!"

Max glared back at Hojo, "You did all those crazy experiments in the name of science!" Max yelled, "What you did wasn't science! It was torture!"

"Small sacrifices had to be made for science!" Hojo shot back quickly, he tried to remain calm but Max knew that Hojo was becoming flustered.

"Small sacrifices!" Max retorted hardly daring to believe what he was hearing. "You make it sound like some sort of barbaric religious cult! Science is supposed to improve lives not make it worse!"

"Hmmm," Hojo thought about what Max was saying, "you know, we're not so different you and…" Hojo didn't get the chance to finish his sentence as one minute Max was in front of him and the next he was behind Hojo holding his sword to his neck.

"Don't you dare!" Max hissed menacingly down Hojo's ear, "unless you want me to remind you of what happened the last time a villain made a monologue about how I wasn't so different from them! Or better yet, why don't you ask Balthazar, I'm sure he'd love to give you all the gory details!"

"Yes," Hojo agreed, still remaining surprisingly calm despite the fact that Max was holding a sword to his throat. "Why don't we ask Balthazar?" Max pressed his sword even closer to Hojo's throat. "Are you going to try and kill me too? I wouldn't if I were you!"

"Humph, it'll be one less…" Max didn't get a chance to finish his sentence as a fist shot out of nowhere and sent Max flying into the far wall. Max's back slammed against the wall and he slid down it landing on his stomach dazed. A figure walked up to Max and before he had a chance to get up the stranger had placed their foot on to Max's back and grinned down at him. Max looked up and his eyes grew wide in shock at who he saw and an all too familiar voice rang in his ears.

"Long time no see, Max."

Meanwhile in the reactor everyone stared in shock at the mysterious newcomer. The stranger pulled their weapon out of the ground and stepped slowly out of the shadows revealing a young scantly clad woman possibly in her mid 20s. She was dressed almost entirely in red and she had crimson coloured eyes and red-brown hair that came to just above her shoulders. She was an attractive woman but deadly in combat and she was still grinning at the group.

"Rosso," Barret, Cid, Yuffie, Cait Sith and Rude stated all at once.

Rosso's grin grew wider, "so you still remember my name," she said mockingly as she held her weapon behind her.

"Who's that?" Sunny asked.

"Rosso the Crimson," Cid answered not taking his eyes off Rosso, "she was a member of the Deepground Soldiers, a vicious, vindictive psycho bitch if there ever was one."

"Oh Cid Highwind," Rosso cut in still in her mocking tone, "you're too kind." She then noticed all the others in the group that she had never met before. "And you guys are?"

"We're not about to tell you!" Lance yelled at the woman, he still hadn't forgotten that Rosso had almost killed Angel, he held his spear behind him ready to strike if she came any closer. "Oh, and the woman almost killed, was my wife!"

Rosso smiled coldly at Lance, "Is that so?" She asked impassively, then she swung her weapon out in front of her, "not that it matters since you're all about to die anyway!"

"Ha, not likely!" Lance retorted as he brought his spear out in front of him and he got into a fighting stance, everyone else saw this and they followed suit.

"Oh," Rosso stated as she just remembered something, "I almost forgot, I want you to meet a couple of friends of mine." Rosso snapped her fingers and a large well built man wielding a giant cannon jumped from the pipes above the ceiling and he landed heavily behind the group, Rosso smiled at the man. "Well you took your time, Azul," she muttered sarcastically.

Azul ignored Rosso, "finally," he said as he readied his cannon, "I get to have a little fun." A strange black like substance moved across the floor and came to a stop next to Rosso. A strange man with a dark aura materialised out of it and he stared at the group.

"So this group is opposing us," the dark man replied impassively, "humph, not very impressive but I must commend their courage."

Isis materialised two gatling guns and stared at the man, "And you are?" She asked showing no hint of emotions.

The dark man laughed, "I'm Nero," he answered, "Nero the Sable and you're creatures from another world aiding Avalanche and WRO to foil our plans."

Isis was about to respond when Rosso cut in, "Nero, we came here to fight our opponents not bore them to death with inane chatter."

Everyone withdrew their weapons and got into a fighting stance, for a while the two groups stood their staring at each other, neither of them moving but rather they were staring their foes down trying to determine a weakness. Without warning the three Deepground Soldiers charged at the group in the middle of them and their weapons clashed with an almighty clang.

Meanwhile back on the Kitsune World someone was walking through the streets of the capital city heading for the palace. They were a young female hedgehog no older than 19 years old. She had purple-pink fur, a purple fringe and sea green eyes, the top head spine was tied back into a small ponytail and the other four hung down to her shoulders. She was dressed for the most part in red, her tube top was red, her trousers were red and her neckerchief was also red. Her gloves and boots were brown, the girl went by the name of Emily, she looked up at the sky and she noticed a strange planet unlike anything she had seen before. "That's a strange looking planet," she thought to herself, "where did it come from?" Not wishing to think about the planet anymore for now she approached the palace and saw Celeste the head Elder of the Kitsune council.

"Celeste!" She called out the woman's name as she caught up to her.

Celeste turned round to face the young woman, "Emily, what brings you here?" Celeste asked curiously.

"I'm looking for Drogo and Sunny," Emily answered, "Have you seen them anywhere?"

Celeste shook her head, "sorry," she replied kindly, "I haven't seen them for a few days now."

"Hmmm," Emily thought about this, "they have to be around here somewhere, do you mind if I take a look around?"

"By all means," Celeste responded and she continued to walk down the corridor and round the corridor leaving Emily alone.

Emily walked down the corridor looking in every room to search for Drogo and Sunny but she couldn't find them anywhere. "Wow," Emily thought to herself as she look around, "it's so easy to get lost in here." Fortunately Emily wasn't one to lose her cool in a situation, she was a very skilled martial artist and had a lot of mental discipline. She searched the entire palace and she eventually ended up in a workshop underneath the palace. Emily found herself looking round eagerly, she was a blacksmith by nature and anything that had anything to do with creating things, more specifically swords then it was bound to catch her interest and something in the room had caught her eye. Emily saw a table in the centre of the room with a small object on top of it. She walked slowly up to the table and she saw that the object was a watch like device, however upon closer examination she saw that it wasn't a watch at all but some kind of teleportation device that had various buttons and dials on it. "Hmmm," Emily said to herself staring at the device with interest, "I wonder what this thing does." She found herself systematically pushing buttons on the device, she found that there were already preset co-ordinates on it. Intrigued she pushed another button just to see what it would do. She saw the co-ordinates reset themselves to form one random co-ordinate that she didn't know about. "What the…" She began to yell but she didn't get the chance to finish the sentence as she was surrounded by a bright light and she disappeared altogether from the workshop.

A few seconds later she appeared in the air and landed ass first on the ground. "Ouch!" She cried out as she rubbed her backside where she had landed, "talk about a rough landing," she looked at her surroundings and she saw that she was in a completely different area. "Where am I?" She asked herself, "am I still in the palace? If I am then this is the strangest looking room I have ever seen." Emily staggered slowly to her feet and she began to get her bearings, she looked behind her to see a strange looking tank. "Ok, what's with the tank?" Emily found herself being drawn towards the tank hoping to find out what was in there, however when she approached the tank she found that it was completely empty. "Was there some kind of experiment in there?" She questioned, she looked up and she saw a plaque above the tank with only a single word. "Hmmm…J.E.N.O.V.A…" She read the name out loud, "Jenova, that's an unusual name, especially for an experiment, I wonder what happened to it." Emily didn't have time to wonder any further as she could hear the sound of shouting and weapons clashing against each other. "What's going on out there?" Emily found herself asking, she instinctively unsheathed her weapon, which was a duel wielder and she swung it round behind her, she crept slowly to the door which automatically opened as she approached it, she carefully looked into the next room and she utter chaos.

Emily looked on as she saw Isis, Lance and a strange looking man with a gun arm who she didn't even know fighting an stranger looking man with a large cannon for a weapon. She saw a man who had a strange taste in clothing, but the really strange thing about the man was the dark aura that surrounded him, he was fighting a bald man wearing shades, another man wielding a spear and a cigarette hanging from his mouth screaming bloody murder at his opponent and a knee height animatronic cat. She looked over to the far right and saw a woman clad in red who's clothing left nothing to the imagination fighting a young woman wielding a giant shuriken, Angel and to her surprise Sunny. While Angel and Yuffie were fighting Rosso up close, Sunny was stood back unloading arrows with amazing speed and skill at Rosso, however Rosso easily deflected the arrows. She managed to knock both Angel and Yuffie out of the way in a single move before she stalked towards Sunny. Sunny knew that Rosso was too close to fire arrows at her so she quickly withdrew her knives, however because Sunny wasn't one for close range combat Rosso knocked the knives out of Sunny's hand and pushed her to the ground. Emily almost cried out when she saw this. Sunny tried to stand but Rosso placed her boot clad foot on to Sunny's stomach and kept it there.

"Ha," Rosso laughed at Sunny, "that was you're best shot, pretty pathetic if you ask me, and now it's my turn." Rosso brought her weapon above her head preparing to strike Sunny, terrified Sunny closed her eyes and waited for the final blow. Rosso brought her weapon over her head only to be met with a clang. Sunny slowly opened one eye to see that Rosso's weapon was being blocked by another one, a duel wielder. Sunny opened her other eye to see a young purple pink hedgehog standing at the side of her blocking Rosso's weapon with her own. Sunny couldn't believe her eyes.

"Emily!" She cried out, "What are you…"

"There's no time to explain," Emily quickly interrupted her, "Check on Angel and the other girl, I'll deal with her!" At these words Emily knocked Rosso back causing her to move her foot away thus freeing Sunny. Sunny leapt to her feet and she ran over to Angel and Yuffie who were just staggering to their feet.

"Are you two ok?" She asked.

Angel nodded, "We're fine," she answered.

"Yeah," Yuffie agreed, she looked over to where Rosso and Emily were fighting, "who's that?" She asked.

"That's Emily," Sunny replied, "we'll explain later, right now we have to help her."

"Right," Angel and Yuffie replied in unison.

"Feral wolf!" Sunny yelled and out of nowhere a pack of four large wolves appeared next to Sunny. She looked to her left and saw that Rude, Cid and Cait Sith were having trouble against Nero, she ran over to them.

Rude, Cid and Cait Sith put up a good fight against Nero, but he was too quick for them. Rude ran up to Nero and punched him but Nero quickly disappeared into the darkness and reappeared behind him, before Rude knew what was happening Nero roundhouse kicked him into the nearest pod. Rude skidded across the ground and slammed hard into the pod effectively knocking him out. Cid leapt into the air and held his spear downwards as he aimed to strike at Nero, Nero merely laughed as he caught the spear and swung it round and flung Cid to the other side of the room where he crash landed into Lance who was busy blocking the bullets that Azul was firing at him with his spear.

"Ouch!" Both Lance and Cid cried out in pain as Cid landed on top of Lance. Nero stared blankly at the two spear wielders before he turned his attention to Cait Sith, before Cait Sith could react Nero grabbed him by the tail and swung him round above his head before throwing him. Cait Sith flew across the room but he didn't hit the ground, rather he landed on something soft. Cait Sith opened his eyes and saw that he was on the back of something soft and furry, on closer examination he noticed that it was a large wolf. He saw three others stood next to it and he noticed Sunny stood behind them.

"Sunny!" Cait Sith yelled pleased to see her, "You saved my life!"

"Thank me later," Sunny told him, "Right now we have to fight these guys!" The wolves growled at Nero, he didn't flinch.

"Is that the best you can do," he still spoke in that same blank, dark voice, but his attention was focused on Sunny, "I expected better from an accomplished summoner." The wolves growled even louder as they heard Nero insult their master, the wolf with Cait Sith on its back lunged at Nero and launched into a combo of physical and earth based attacks finally finishing with a powerful earth quake move. When all this was finished however Nero had sustained some injuries but they were only relatively minor. He laughed at Sunny, "fool," he stated as he walked towards Sunny, "did you really expect that attack to seriously wound me?"

"No," a deep voice sounded behind her, "but this will!" Nero turned round just in time to see a fist hit him square in the face, Nero was knocked flying straight into the Jenova room and he slammed back first into the empty tank semi conscious. Sunny looked up to see Rude standing there quickly adjusting his tie.

"Rude!" She exclaimed, "you're ok!"

Rude nodded, "We Turks are very resilient," he told her, "it seems that Nero will be out of it for a while, we better help the others." Rude, Sunny and her summoned wolves ran in the direction where everyone was fighting Azul. Cid and Lance were back on their feet clashing their spears against Azul, even Angel had joined the fray launching herself at Azul with her devastating spin attack. Yuffie repeatedly threw her shuriken at Azul like a boomerang and Isis and Barret were jointly unloading bullets into Azul. However the bullets didn't even faze him. With one swift movement he knocked Lance, Cid and Angel away.

"Ha!" Azul laughed at the group. "Is that the all you've got?" Azul didn't even notice a pack of wolves charge towards him and jump on top of him growling, scratching and biting. A whole barrage of arrows were fired into Azul's back, he cried out in pain and turned to face the source of the arrows. Everyone looked over to the left and saw Sunny and Rude standing there. Azul threw the wolves off him one by one each of them slamming into the pods and crying out in pain as they disappeared. Azul then loaded his cannon and pointed it at Sunny. "Say goodnight cutie!" He yelled as he pointed the barrel right at Sunny's face. Azul had his finger on the trigger and he was about to pull it when he felt a sudden sharp pain in his back. He turned his head round to see Lance stood on his back digging his spear deeply into it. Azul shifted and tossed trying to throw Lance off him but Lance held on tightly.

"Oh no you don't!" He yelled at Azul, "You want to kill any of my friends then you're gonna have to get rid of me first!" Lance removed his spear and leapt off Azul's back before Azul could even react Lance picked Azul by the leg and swung him round and round going faster and faster each time he eventually let go causing Azul to go flying into the Jenova room and land on top of Nero. "Two down and only one to go." Everyone turned round to see Emily still fighting Rosso.

"Who's that?" Cid asked as he noticed Emily for the first time in the entire battle.

"That's Emily," Sunny answered, "she's a friend of ours but we'll explain everything later."

Everyone continued to watch as the two women battled on each blocking the other with amazing skill. Rosso couldn't help but be impressed by Emily. "I must admit, you're skilled in battle," she commented as she parried another one of Emily's blows.

"Like wise," Emily replied, "but if anyone ever threatens my friends, they don't normally live to brag about it!"

"Is that so?"

Emily and Rosso fought with a renewed vigour, Emily knew that Rosso was deadly in combat and that there was no way she could defeat her easily. Nevertheless she remembered her training and eventually she found an opening, as Rosso struck forwards Emily ducked underneath Rosso's attack and struck her in the leg.

"Aaahhh!" Rosso cried out in pain but she didn't have time to tend to her wound. She glared at Emily, "You bitch!" She spat as she struck at Emily with much more speed and strength than usual causing Emily to be knocked back and sent flying back first into a pod behind her, she still managed to hold her weapon as her back slammed into the pod. Before she could get to her feet Rosso grabbed her by the throat and lifted her up into the air she raised her weapon up with her other hand aiming to impale Emily. However before she had the chance to impale Emily an arrow shot into her back followed by another arrow and another until there was a whole line of arrows stuck in her back. Rosso immediately dropped Emily and she turned round to see Sunny stood there holding her bow out ready. Rosso merely grinned at Sunny, "You think a few crappy arrows can kill me?" She asked in a mocking tone. "I'm a member of Deepground remember it takes more than that to kill me and my comrades should be up any second now." As she said this, the wall of the Jenova room cracked and debris flew all over the room and Azul came stomping out of it holding his cannon above his head ready for battle again. At the same moment a dark shadow appeared on the floor next to Azul and Nero materialised out of it. The three Deepground soldiers advanced towards Avalanche and their friends when shrill voices filled the room.

"Holy White Dragon!" Everyone turned round to see Sunny and Angel stood side by side both of them were emitting a bright white glow. The white light shot into the air and a large white dragon materialised out of the light it flapped its regal wings as it glided round the room it was surrounded by a Holy white glow so bright that everyone had to shield their eyes. The dragon whirled round and faced Nero, Rosso and Azul who were too stunned to even move. The dragon opened its mouth and flames of Holy fire shot out of its mouth hitting the Deepground Soldiers and engulfing them in a cone of white fire which appeared to explode on impact. When the dust, flames and light cleared Rosso, Nero and Azul were lay on the floor grievously wounded but still alive nevertheless.

"You may…have been…able to defeat us…for now…" Nero panted but his eyes were focused on the group. "But you…haven't seen the last of us…" Before anyone could respond the three Deepground soldiers disappeared leaving the group alone. The dragon hovered above the ground for a few seconds before it disappeared, Sunny ran over to Emily.

"Are you alright?" She asked as she held out her hand to help Emily up.

"I'm fine," Emily answered as she grabbed hold of Sunny's hand and Sunny helped her to her feet. "Who were those creeps?"

Everyone walked up to the two girls, "They're called Deepground," Rude answered Emily's question, "they were defeated a year ago by a man called Vincent Valentine, and now they're back."

Emily was about to respond to this when Cid quickly cut in "Whoa!" he exclaimed staring at Sunny then Angel, "I ain't never seen a summon like that before!" Sunny and Angel blushed at this.

"It was a summon that we discovered we could summon together," Angel answered.

Everyone then turned their attention to Emily, "So who are you?" Barret asked her.

"My name is Emily," Emily answered, "I'm a friend of Sunny, Angel, Isis and Lance, but I've never seen you guys before."

"Well my name is Barret," Barret answered, "And this is Cid," Barret pointed to Cid.

"The best damn pilot in the world!" Cid boasted.

"And over there is Rude," Barret ignored Cid and he pointed at Rude.

"The one word wonder," Cid continued to interrupt, Barret glared at him and continued to introduce everyone.

"There's Yuffie."

"Pain in the ass extraordinaire!" Yuffie glared at Cid but Cid just ignored her.

"Lastly there's Cait Sith."

"An even bigger pain in the ass…wait…nothing can be more of a pain in the ass than Yuffie."

"Hey!" Yuffie yelled as she continued to glare at Cid, he just ignored her again.

"Anyway," Barret cut in before Cid and Yuffie could argue further, "What brings you here?"

"Well," Emily started to explain, "I was looking for Drogo and Sunny, I searched the palace of the Kitsune world but I couldn't find them anywhere. I entered the workshop I didn't see them there either but I found a strange device lying on a table," at these words she raised her arm to reveal a small watch like device.

"Hey, that device looks familiar," Yuffie interrupted.

"I'm guessing Max must've invented them," Emily replied, "anyway, I put it on and started pushing buttons, next thing I knew I was here."

"You're in luck Emily," Lance told her, "Drogo's on this world too but he's on another mission, something about exploring an old haunted house."

"Speaking of missions," Isis added, "we still have our own mission to complete, how do we switch off all these whirring machines?"

Lance saw what looked like a fuse box, he walked over to it and with his left arm he prised the lid off and threw it to the ground, he spotted a switch and he pulled it causing the machinery to shut down and all was silent in the reactor. Rude nodded and he took his PHS out of his pocket and dialled Rufus' number. "It turns out that Deepground, well three members of Deepground anyway were responsible for reactivating the Mount Nibel reactor, it took a while but we managed to defeat them and the reactor has been deactivated again. We're gonna meet Cloud and the others at the mansion, Rude out." Rude placed his PHS back in his pocket and he stood there looking as taciturn as ever.

"Well what are we waiting for?" Emily asked the group, "We have to find Drogo."

Without another word the whole group along with their new ally Emily left the reactor and began their descent down the mountain back into town to meet up with the others, not knowing that there were far more sinister things waiting for them.

Finally chapter 16 is complete, this chapter focused on the battle with Deepground, I know this is a big section of the story. The next chapter will focus on the battle in the mansion. Sorry this chapter took so long to write I've just been very busy with uni. I don't own Final Fantasy VII or any of its characters, I do however own characters I've created myself.