Ok so apparently this story has had no hits at all in the last few days as oppose to the hundreds it has been getting every upload day... methinks there is something wrong with the live traffic function! Enjoy the chapter!

-Chapter Seventeen- Battle of the Summons

With four of them focusing all of their efforts into finding healing magic, the task was simple. It was Yuffie who had found it two days into the search, conveniently enough in one of the hospitals in London. This added to their suspicions that the materia was indeed thinking for itself and choosing when and where it chose to appear very wisely. After healing Shaun back to perfect health within a matter of minutes, the companions saw it only fitting that he should be the one to keep the materia.

Vincent, Reeve, Yuffie, Red and Tifa were all on a first class train back towards Alex and Shaun's hometown. All but Reeve were letting their hosts take control at the present time. The carriage they were in at present was unoccupied.

Shaun rolled up his right sleeve and touched a finger to it, making the red orb which contained Alexander appear. He extracted it, and then held it out to the puzzled Savina. "Red and I want you to have this." He explained, placing it on the table in front of her, everybody looked at him in surprise.

"But why?" Savina said, not objecting and picking up the orb regardless. "We agreed when we took it that this was to be your materia."

"The Shinra seem to be very interested in it…" Shaun began, eyes closed as if talking to Red at the same time, "…after what the two of us went through, we have decided it is more trouble than it is worth."

"If that's how you feel I guess…" She extended her right arm and pierced the red orb into her skin.

"So what is the plan Reeve?" Alex asked him. He was currently staring absent minded out the window.

"Yourself and Shaun need to make your excuses. The two of you have been disappearing rather frequently, make up the best story you can and then…" He got out his phone and started dialling, "…I will have a jet waiting for us ready at the nearest airport to take us to China. We waste no more time…"

The man sitting apart from the group of four chucked. This man was well built and with short jet black hair and could only be Vincent's host. He did not say a word however, and within moments Vincent himself materialised. It was very odd not to see him in his usual attire.

"Do any of you know just how long this wall is?" He asked.

Shaun answered. "If I remember my history lessons right, around five and a half thousand miles."

"Precisely…" Vincent said, "…lucky for all of you I do have a plan."

"Ah ha ha!" Savina laughed, leaning on the table in despair. "Five thousand five hundred miles of wall, and you actually have a plan to find something this big?" She held up thumb and index finger.

"As a matter of fact I do. I will explain when we get on the plane."

The next station is Salisbury. Came the automated voice over the PA system.

"Well this is going to be fun…" Alex began, "…I still don't see what would have been wrong with a phonecall."

"Do you not want to see your family?" Reeve joked as he got up from his seat and walked towards the train doors.

"What if they don't buy the excuses?" Shaun asked, getting to his feet and following Reeve.

"Well…" Savina said, "…I can always make sure they believe you no matter what?" She patted her right hand. "Or would that be too crude?" She smiled as the train pulled into the station, and the five of them got off onto the platform.

X

"…A camping weekend?" Alex's mum said to her. "You really expect me to believe that you have had a craving for the outdoors and not washing properly for two days?"

"It's just a bit of fun with some friends from college mum…" Alex replied, packing a bag with essentials, "…you know I can look after myself."

"I don't doubt that." She laughed slightly. "No honey you know I have always let you get on and do your own thing, so you just take care of yourself…try not to drink too much…"

Alex zipped up her bag and turned to leave. She walked up to her mum and hugged her. "See you on Sunday." Her mum gave her a swift kiss on the cheek and watched as her daughter left.

Alex waited until she was well and truly out of sight of her mum before getting out her phone and dialling Savina's number. "Right I'm ready…He's with you already? Then let's get going." She hung up and waited, a couple of minutes passed before Savina pulled up in front of her in another plush looking car she had no doubt liberated.

"Ok direct me to the airport, Reeve and Vincent should be waiting for us." Without further hesitation they set off as fast as they could.

X

"Vincent…" Reeve began, "…how good is this plan of yours? We could be searching the wall our entire lives and find nothing."

"If it doesn't work then it isn't there, simple as that." The two of them were standing outside a small jet. Without further ado they spotted Savina, Alex and Shaun walking towards them. "Hope they are prepared for a long flight…"

Alex was the first to reach them. "Just how rich is your host Reeve?" She asked in amazement as she examined the jet.

"Money is not and has never been an object to him, which we should count ourselves lucky for." He replied simply.

The five companions boarded the jet. The interior was magnificent. Instead of the normal rows of seating which you saw on a normal plane, it was as though they had walked into a very expensive sitting room. There was even a TV mounted on what must have been the dividing wall between the cabin and the pilots.

"How long is the flight?" Shaun asked as the door was closed behind him.

"Roughly ten hours." Reeve replied. "Best make yourselves comfortable."

A few minutes later the jet roared into life and they were airborne. Vincent walked over to the TV and switched it on. To everyone's surprise, a map of china appeared on it. "Could I have all parasites present for this?"

Together, Savina Alex and Shaun let their respective parasites take control. All eyes were now on Vincent, everybody waiting to hear his master plan.

"Right… Reeve I said to you that if my plan didn't work then it wasn't there. Truth is I already know for fact that there is some kind of materia there. I tried to get it myself, but the protection it has given itself was far too sophisticated for me to handle alone at the time."

"Protection?" Tifa asked, "It's just bricks and mortar."

"Not entirely." Vincent replied grimly, he then picked up a small remote control and faced the screen. "The materia is located here up at the highest point of the wall in the mountains…" The map zoomed in and the region Vincent was referring to highlighted itself, "…within the wall at the point is what can only be described as a labyrinth." The map zoomed in further so that the top of the wall was almost filling the entire screen. "The entrance to the labyrinth is here." An area near a watchtower highlighted. "It only opens when it senses materia."

"Wait wait wait…" Yuffie said, "…that makes no sense. This world did not have materia before we got here."

"Precisely," Vincent agreed, "all the more reason for us to believe that the materia can think for itself. This one has created a labyrinth to protect itself, to test whoever wants to acquire it. It is this that leads me to believe it is the black materia."

The cabin went silent. All of them were gazing at the screen. "Please continue Vincent…" Reeve prompted.

"There is not much more to say. The labyrinth defeated me moments into it. I did not have the necessary strength to do it alone. I probably could now, but who knows what else is in there, there could be anything so we must be open minded."

"Open minded, good way of putting it…" Red said, curling up on the floor and yawning.

Vincent made the screen zoom out. "We will be touching down thirty miles north of the wall. We make our own way there, then it is a ten mile journey to the summit from the nearest point we can reach."

"We can all fly?" Yuffie suggested, raising her right arm without noticing.

"Too risky…" Vincent squashed the idea, "…no we use conventional methods to get to the wall and then hike to the summit. I suggest both ourselves and our hosts get some rest before we touch down in China." He turned off the monitor.

"Thank you Vincent." Reeve said. "If you don't mind me asking how did you find the entrance in the first place?"

"You'll see when we get there; you can tell the area has been magically tampered with literally miles away. Now we must rest…"

Ten long hours later they touched down in China in what looked like a privately owned airfield. The flight was very fatigue inducing, so the advice to rest was appreciated at this point.

"So the wall is thirty miles to the south of us…" Alex said. They had all resumed their host forms for the time being, "…and there should be a car waiting for us…"

"Over there!" Charles pointed and started walking in the direction of a Jeep. "Should be there in no time, Vincent?"

Vincent had chosen not to change back to his host. "To get to the best point we will need to drive off road. Since I am the only one who knows the way I think it best that I drive, agreed?"

Nobody objected. Vincent got in the driver's side, Charles rode shotgun, and the other three got in the back. They drove for a good twenty minutes before Vincent declared it safe for them to all change back. Reeve was chatting away to Vincent in the front, leaving the other three to talk in the back.

"So what do you think is going to be in this labyrinth?" Yuffie asked the other two. "If Vincent couldn't manage it."

"I say we just take his advice and try to keep an open mind. Trying to predict anything might be our downfall." Red replied, his voice trembling slightly from the cars movements.

More silence, until Tifa finally looked ahead and said, "There!" She pointed, "I can see the wall."

In the distance they saw it, the winding wall that was the Great Wall of China. Vincent stopped the car for a moment so they could all take in the task ahead.

"You see that mountain range over there?" He called to all of them, pointing. "At the summit is the highest point of the Great Wall. That's where the entrance to the labyrinth is."

They all gazed at the point to which he was pointing. The objective seemed all too real now, something which slightly worried all those present. After all, the only person who had any kind of idea what they might face was Vincent, and he wasn't saying anything.

He set the car back into motion and they were off. "We should be there in about ten minutes at this rate. Everyone make sure you are prepared, we leave what we don't need in the jeep." Vincent called to all of them.

In what seemed like no time at all they were at the edge of the wall. Scaling it was relatively easy, and before they knew it, they were facing the long winding wall towards the mountain summit.

"Ten miles…" Vincent began, "…best make haste."

It got steadily colder as their altitude grew, and the journey there was extremely uneventful. There was a nervous aura about the team however, even Vincent was not saying a word.

"Can you sense it?" Reeve asked, stopping suddenly. "Is this what you meant Vincent, I've had this odd feeling since we got on the wall…"

"That's it, the magic interference." Vincent confirmed. "I think it is linked to the wall, I was exactly one thousand miles east of it when I first sensed it."

It was as though the feeling was guiding them in the right direction, assuring them that they were heading the right way. At last however, they reached the highest point of the wall, atop which stood one of the many watchtowers.

"Something's wrong…" Vincent said, his pace quickening, "…oh god…" He broke into a run and then, quite suddenly, he vanished.

"Vincent!" Tifa shouted, running to the area of which he had just dematerialised. All of a sudden however he reappeared.

"That's the entrance there…" He pointed to a seemingly uninteresting section of the wall, "…look closely."

They all concentrated on where he was pointing. A few seconds later what appeared to be a staircase appears, leading down into the depths of the wall. They all approached it nervously.

"So what's wrong?" Yuffie asked, walking up to the top and peering down into the blackness.

"…It was already open." Vincent informed her, walking to stand beside her. "Someone is here, or was here…"

"So do we continue?" Red asked, also walking to the top of the staircase.

"We didn't come all this way for nothing." Vincent replied, starting to walk nervously down the stairs. The others followed.

They descended in what appeared to be a small antechamber. There was a huge stone gate in front of them which was currently open. Even though the room did not have any source of light, it was being illuminated from what must have been magic.

"This is the room that defeated me, that gate would not open no matter how hard I tried." Vincent informed them. "What lies beyond there is anyone's guess…"

He lead the way through the gates cautiously. It was strange, every following room at first seemed pitch dark, though upon entering it became perfectly well lit. The room they were now standing in had an ominously tiled floor, several of which were glowing blue, others red.

"If I might take a guess Vincent…" Reeve said, standing at the edge of the tiles, "This must have been a puzzle of sorts, but it has been solved already. Best guess is use the blue tiles…" He looked down at the nearest blue tile and took a step onto it. Nothing happened.

It was somewhat lucky, but then again this must have meant whoever was here previously had snatched the materia. Room after room of puzzles and booby traps came their way, all of which posed no threat to them whatsoever.

At last they reached a closed oak door twice the size of a normal man, it was slightly ajar, light spilling out of the open crack. Vincent stretched out a hand and pushed the door open.

They had reached the last room of the trials. The room was circular, with ornate carvings round its circumference. In the middle was a pedestal, which was raised on some steps. At the pedestal however stood a man, his back turned to them. In his right hand was a red orb.

Whoever it was didn't seem to notice that they had company. He rolled down his left sleeve and pushed the orb into his arm. None of them knew what to do, whether this was friend of foe was anyone's guess at the moment. Then however, their questions were answered.

The figure turned round and looked at them all, seemingly unsurprised. They raised their hands and lowered their hood.

There standing before them, was none other than…

"Sephiroth…" Vincent said in an undertone, then not wasting anytime he drew his gun and fired shot after shot at him. The translucent barrier he had used before absorbed all of the bullets with ease.

He laughed. "Haven't you heard of saying hello?"

Without warning the room then turned pitch black. There were cries of shock, and then moments later the room was illuminated once more. Sephiroth was gone.

"He can't have got far!" Reeve shouted, kicking himself for not destroying the barrier. "To the wall!"

They ran through all of the previous rooms as fast as they could, up the stone stairs and onto the wall. Sephiroth was a couple of hundred feet in the distance. Vincent took aim once more and fired.

With no barrier prepared this time, a bullet hit him in the right arm. This made him stop abruptly and turn to create another barrier. Reeve was not close enough to destroy it, so they watched as his arm glowed a bright green.

"Healing magic…dammit…" Vincent muttered, they all began to run towards him.

They were about halfway there when something very odd happened. The wall seemed to tremor, as though it were moving. Suddenly however, the source of the quake was discovered. From the ground burst a magnificent crimson dragon, it flew high into the air, and then began to hover, looking down on the parasites.

"I wanted the pleasure of killing you all myself…this will have to do for now…" Sephiroth taunted, "…goodbye, enjoy the afterlife…"

He turned and fled, his left arm glowing red.

Yuffie looked up at the dragon, which seemed to be delaying making the first attack. "Time to rock n roll…" She ran at the wall, extended her arm and from it a pure silver orb shot out into the ground. Her arm began to glow red, and from the earth emerged the great holy war machine that was Alexander.

"Don't mind if I do…" Vincent agreed, also extending his arm, from which bust a black orb which shot towards the sky. The clear blue sky was clouded by thick black storm-clouds, from which galloped a six legged horse bearing the unholy warrior, Odin.

Odin made to attack the dragon which was Neo Bahamut on his descent, but the dragon was too quick for him, it gracefully glided out of the way straight down towards the parasites.

"Split up and take cover!" Tifa shouted, already jumping off of the wall on the side which Alexander stood.

Nobody needed telling twice. Yuffie was right behind Tifa and made her way over to Alexander, the better to take aim at the beast. She mounted the machine and took aim, firing ray after ray of bolts at the dragon, but it dodged them too easily.

Tifa fired fireballs at the dragon, however they were far too slow moving to stand a chance of hitting. "Try and force it towards Odin Yuffie!" She called over.

Yuffie obliged, trying to force the dragon, which had just fired a nasty ball of flame at Reeve, towards the warrior. Bahamut seemed to notice what was going on however, and before making impact with Odin's lance it plummeted, landing on the top of the watchtower.

Red jumped down off the wall and headed over to Tifa and Yuffie. "You're never going to hit it at this rate…"

"Nicely spotted Einstein…" Yuffie replied, taking aim and yet again missing the dodging summon, "…could use a little help."

Red was already on it. The golden aura of his time magic extended straight into Yuffie's eyes. She took aim once more, and this time her aim was true. Bolt after bolt hit the dragon with absurd ease, making it roar in pain.

Fifteen seconds later however, the beam broke and her perception of time returned to normal. The dragon looked over at her and this time fired a ball of non-elemental energy their way. Yuffie abandoned Alexander just before it hit, but then something very unexpected happened. Just as the machine exploded in a spectacular flame, Yuffie was hurled off her feet and slammed with incredible force up against the side of the wall.

"Yuffie!" Red shouted, running over to her as fast as he could. The green mist of restore was quickly sent her way, however she did not wake. Tifa ran over quickly too.

She checked for a pulse. "She is still alive." They both breathed a short sigh of relief, then turned to see the dragons progress.

The shots from Alexander had caused it to become very slow. Dodging seemed to be impossible for it now. Reeve and Vincent were both firing at it, but eventually, it was Odin's lance which found the beasts heart. Broken and defeated the dragon fell and was strewn across the top of the watchtower, clearly dead. Seconds later however, it started to slowly evaporate, as though it had just been dismissed.

Looking back over at where Alexander once was, they saw that all traces of him were also gone. Vincent and Reeve made their way over to the others. "What the hell happened, we thought she got out the way?" Reeve asked.

"We don't know…" Tifa replied, worried, "…Alexander died and then she suddenly…well, you can see what happened next."

"With any luck the same thing will have happened to Sephiroth…" Vincent speculated, "…of all the people that could have been here. Take Yuffie back with you, I have things I need to check here. You know how to reach me…" he made his way back to the labyrinth, leaving Reeve, Red and Tifa to carry Yuffie back to the Jeep.

X

Beep beep, beep beep, beep beep…

Josh was getting extremely agitated by this noise. It was odd, it sounded nothing like his alarm clock, yet what else could it possibly be?

Beep beep, beep beep.

He grunted something incomprehensible, wanting to still sleep.

Beep beep.

Begrudgingly, Josh opened his eyes. He was staring up at a bright white ceiling, trying to look around, he noticed he could only be in hospital. But why was he in hospital? So many things crossed his mind, none of which seemed to fit the predicament he was in.

"Nurse!" Shouted a voice to his left Josh recognised as his fathers. "Nurse, he's awake!" The sound of footsteps and worried voices, but Josh could not retain consciousness for much longer and involuntarily, he passed out…

A/N- Enjoy it? We hope you did! Please let us know what you think. We rather enjoyed writing this chapter at any rate =). Til wednesday everyone...

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