Sorry for slow update, enjoy the chapter!

-Chapter Twenty-Five-

Black Materia

"So there we have it, I believe this will be our best bet by far, if not then at least we will have the largest of the three searched first. If we are in luck however, we should be able to tell relatively early on which of them contains the materia." Reeve explained, shutting off the monitor of the television which had previously depicted the three pyramids of Giza.

"How big is the interior of the grand pyramid?" Tifa asked, pacing around the jet apparently restless.

"Well according to the information we found on the internet the inside is not as big as you would anticipate, it is made up of three areas the biggest of which is the gallery." Reeve answered, but then said, "Consider however what we were faced with underneath the Great Wall, that was not meant to be there. We must expect the unexpected, if a summon materia can alter its surroundings and guard itself so effectively then the black materia certainly will be able to." He thought back to the temple of the ancients, something about his reminiscing must have shown on his face.

"If getting hold of it is as difficult as it was last time then we have to be prepared for the long haul." Cloud voiced, "it's not going to be easy…"

Everybody seemed to be running through their mind what they were about to undergo. The whole thing seemed like odd de ja vu to Cloud, something which he could not shake off of his mind. "What if history repeats itself? What if he just gets it again and summons meteor?"

"We shall face that problem if and when we come to it." Reeve replied, popping his ears as the plane went into its descent. "When we get it however we destroy it immediately, no faffing about trying to keep it from him."

Everybody agreed, remembering the terrible consequences that this had caused last time. After a few minutes the jet touched town and came to a halt, everybody reverted to their host forms. They got out one after the other, each being hit hard by the heat which they were met with. "Welcome to Bawiti, Egypt." Charles announced to them all as the last of them got off the plane. "Half an hour's journey to the pyramids, you won't be able to miss them…"

They all walked over to a waiting jeep and got in, as normal Reeve driving. The sweltering heat which they were all faced with seemed to be making them extremely lethargic, something which they would not need to worry about too much when inside the pyramid, if indeed the materia was inside.

"So Charles…" Alex began, who was riding shotgun, "…how did we locate the materia in the first place?"

"Well," He began, having to shout slightly over the engine noise, "we have checked the pyramids before, they seemed like an obvious location. When Vincent went on about the materia still coming through we decided to keep an eye on them."

"And now we know for sure it is here?" Alex asked.

"One hundred per cent, our man's instinct went berserk, it is too strong a feeling to be able to pinpoint which tomb it is in however, that is the only problem." On the horizon they saw the three pyramids appear. "The largest one is the grand one," He explained, even at this great distance it was clear which one was largest, "We start there."

X

"So there are more of them?" The advisor asked the minister, "How many more sir?"

"Not many, there is only a handful we need to worry about though. Stop the manhunt for Ms West, focus all efforts on Mr Adams, he is priority one, priority two is a man named Nicoli Dimitri, see what you can dig up on him." The minister answered from behind his desk.

"You trust the information you were given then sir?" The advisor asked, looking a little sceptical.

"Completely, it is not something I can explain to you nor will you ever understand, just trust me when I say Mr Adams is the problem." He looked down at a memo he had been sent, "The incident at the bar in London, any more information on that?"

"No sir…" The advisor replied rather solemnly, "probably just an arsonist, though police have found nothing to go on whatsoever, almost like the perfect crime."

The minister had a horrible suspicion. "Ok, keep me updated with that won't you?"

"Of course sir." The advisor knew this was his cue to leave.

The minister poured himself a drink when his advisor had left and took a sip of it, he then set it down on the desk and walked over to the window and gazed out of it. Thoughts were flooding his head, all that he had learnt through Vincent Valentine prominent at the front of his mind. His door opened and closed once more.

"John…" He said, not turning round, "with all due respect what could possibly have changed in the last thirty…"

"I'm afraid John has had to turn in his resignation Mr Prime Minister…" A young voice answered from behind him. The minister turned round at once and was faced with none other than Josh Adams, "…I wouldn't bother calling for help if I were you, I don't think their hearing works anymore if you catch my drift?"

He locked the door behind him and took the key, this was unnecessary considering his barrier magic, yet the theatrics amused him. "Ah! I see you have already prepared a drink for me, how thoughtful you are minister…" Josh walked over to the desk and picked up the small glass of whisky, downing it in one.

"What do you want?" The minister asked defiantly.

"Oh my my we are going to need to work on your manners minister!" Josh taunted, jumping gracefully backwards over the desk and into the red leather chair behind it. "Vincent Valentine, what did he tell you?"

The minister did not move, it was though he was rooted to the spot in fear. "Nothing of interest to you, now get out of my office!" He replied, his voice full of false non-existent confidence.

Josh raised his hand and it glowed yellow. The minister then had the odd sensation that his mind was attempting to wipe itself, it was an unpleasant feeling, one which he fought with all his mind to fight off. Moments later it subsided.

"Now that is interesting, a non-parasite resistant to manipulation magic, very interesting." Josh lowered his arm, deciding which of the many orbs to use next. "Makes it much more fun for me however, I suggest you co-operate minister, your death with be swift and painless if you do." The minister said nothing and tried to keep his face neutral. "No? Very well."

An electric current erupted from Josh's fingertips, lifting the minister off of his feet and pinning him up against the back wall. He was screaming in agony, screaming for help to ears which could no longer hear, to advisors which would no longer run to his aid.

The current subsided and the minister fell to the floor with an almighty thud. "Now I will ask you again minister. What did Vincent Valentine tell you, where are the other parasites heading, what are their intentions?" The minister was terrified, yet he still refused to answer. "You are going to find out very quickly minister that my parasite and I are not well known for our patience, so you best co-operate quickly!"

He fired more lightning at him, causing him to scream in pain again, he writhed on the floor in agony, completely helpless. Josh attempted to use the manipulate materia again, yet he still managed to resist.

"Let me speak with him…" Sephiroth requested. Josh obliged, and seconds later the terrible figure of Sephiroth was towering over the helpless prime minister. "Now, let's see what we can do with you…" He drew a knife from his belt. It was odd, but since Josh had succumbed to Sephiroth's will whenever they morphed their attire changed as well.

Sephiroth slammed the knife through the ministers hand causing him to cry out once more. "I could do this…" Sephiroth said, withdrawing it from his flesh and snapping a finger on the other hand, "…all night!"

For at least an hour both Sephiroth and Josh took it in turns torturing the helpless man until eventually, much to their delight, he gave in. "Egypt…they went to Egypt…" He gasped through the shortness of breath he was left with.

"Why?" Josh who was currently in control asked.

"Black materia…they think it is there…" The minister replied, wheezing now from the lack of oxygen.

"You see minister…this would have been so much easier if you had just told me that to begin with instead of putting up a futile resistance." Josh walked over to him, touched a finger to the ministers forehead, and watched as his eyes rolled to the back of his head, showing only whiteness.

It was the same move Sephiroth had made him use on his defenceless aunt as he forced him to kill her, the deathblow, the ability only Sephiroth possessed in this world. Josh walked swiftly out of the office.

X

Tifa, Reeve, Red, Yuffie and Cloud all stood in front of the grand pyramid. It was an incredible sight, it towered hundreds of feet above them, casting a huge shadow over them in the desert sand.

"You can feel it too right?" Cloud asked, who was standing to the right of Tifa, addressing her. "It's definitely in this one."

"Our man didn't get a close enough look he was airborne at the time." Reeve explained, also with the overwhelmingly confident sensation that the black materia was in the pyramid before them. It was almost as though it was calling them to it.

"Do you think Sephiroth is here already?" Red asked everyone present.

"Who can say, for all we know he has already come and gone without our knowledge…mind you he would have used it by now if he had." Tifa pointed out. "So we have either beaten him or he is inside."

Reeve walked up to the edge of the pyramid. "I suppose we should start working out how exactly we get in?" He speculated, the others walked up beside him to join his search.

"Wherever it is it will be responsive to materia, we just need to search." Cloud said, starting to run his fingers along the base. "Someone check the top, there might be something up there, the rest of us should check the perimeter at the bottom."

Yuffie using her agile abilities started to climb the jagged edge of the pyramid. She was halfway up before looking back down to check the progress that her allies had made with their search at the bottom. She marvelled at just how tall the structure was, it wasn't until you were climbing it that you could truly appreciate the height.

When she reached the tip of the pyramid she knew that something of interest was there immediately, her instinct told her so. Upon careful inspection of the top most brick she noticed something which looked oddly like a tiny switch or button. She tried to press it down, thought it would not budge. Thinking for a few moments, she attempted to pull it out, then found that it could be twisted.

She turned it as far anticlockwise as it would go, and there was a rumble which caused the pyramid to shake. Yuffie looked back down at the stunned faces figures of her allies, who were all looking at a pitch black entrance that had been revealed. Yuffie skilfully traversed the edge of the pyramid and headed back down to join them.

"Found something then I take it?" Cloud asked upon her reaching the bottom.

"Yep!" She replied joyfully. "I thought there was already meant to be an entrance to this thing anyways Reeve?" She asked.

"The materia must have blocked it off, god only knows what we are going to find in there…" Reeve replied, taking a brave step forward towards the entrance. "I would say let's wait for Vincent and the others, but time is not on our side…" He walked into the tunnel.

There was no source of light to illuminate there way whatsoever. Tifa was soon on the case, she made a sustained flame appear in her right hand, showing them what they were faced with. The tunnel was plain, made from the same limestone bricks as the exterior. Looking around they could see torch brackets on the walls.

Tifa lit them as they went. "Nobody else is here then I would imagine…" She speculated, the passage did not look as though it had yet been trodden through.

They all walked cautiously down the dull corridor, until at last the reached a plain black door. On the wall next to the door was an inscription which read;

To all those who seek me…

Your intentions are of no importance, whether you seek to destroy or liberate is neither here nor there. Take heed to this warning and turn back, for the power I contain is far too great to be controlled.

If you insist on pressing forward know this, the maze before you is expertly designed, never the same corridor twice will you face, and always on your guard you must be. Time and space are of little significance in this place, so be warned, you may just 'lose yourself' in the halls beyond.

Turn back whilst you still can…

"The materia wrote that?" Cloud questioned aloud. "It's like it resents its own existence…"

"If anybody does want to turn back…" Tifa began, going forward and putting her hand on the door ready to open it, "…now is the time, I won't blame any of you."

"Don't be silly!" Yuffie replied, walking up next to her.

Nobody left. With that, she pushed the door forward and entered the room beyond… Inside was a huge room, it must have been bigger than the base of the pyramid itself. It was constructed of what appeared to be black bricks, thousands of them, all of different shapes and sizes. Some jutting out of the wall, some creating staircases.

At the far end of the dark room was what appeared to be…what was it? A black light which illuminated the vicinity? "That must be it…" Cloud said, taking a step forward and almost immediately wishing he hadn't.

The room began to shake, all of them now finding it difficult to keep their balance. All of a sudden one of the bricks to Cloud's right began to tremble. "Look out!" Tifa shouted, hurling herself at him and knocking the two of them out the way just as the brick extended and slammed into the far wall, creating a long black barrier between themselves and the others.

It did not end there however, the two of them soon found themselves dodging out of the way of more black blocks, jumping ducking and weaving to avoid getting crushed. As soon as it was all over, the two of them looked around at their new surroundings. They were now standing in a narrow room, with no exit except a staircase which was built into the side of one of the walls which led up to another platform.

"Reeve! Yuffie! Red!" Tifa called through the blocks.

"We're here!" Reeve's voice replied from the other side of the wall behind them. "We're all fine, there is no way we can get to you though!" Tifa and Cloud looked at each other in panic.

"We're going to have to move on alone, see if it joins up later!" Cloud shouted back.

They agreed, and not wanting to waste any more time, the two of them pressed on up the stairs. The labyrinth was relentless and utterly perplexing. It was as though the already huge room was making them walk tantalisingly close to where the black materia, or at least what they assumed to be the materia, lay before forcing them to backtrack.

"I think I preferred the temple…" Tifa said to Cloud as they were forced to change direction away from the materia again, "…at least it didn't keep changing itself…"

They heard movement from round the next corner. To their delight, Reeve soon emerged from round it, walking briskly towards them. "Fancy finding you two!" He joked, walking briskly up to them, "No luck I take it?"

"Just got to keep going it looks like…" Cloud replied, thinking this was a rather odd question.

"Indeed…" Reeve then pulled out his gun and shot Cloud right in the shoulder. Out of nowhere however, someone else had tackled him to the floor. He sight which they now looked upon was most peculiar, two Reeves were grappling before them on the floor, and then two seconds later, one of them dissolved completely.

"It's testing us…" Reeve said, panting, "…I just went through the same thing with Yuffie before we got separated."

Cloud applied pressure to the wound in his shoulder. "We need to get you to Red, he has healing magic.

"Magic doesn't work in here…have you not tried any since we entered this room?" Reeve asked Tifa. Things were starting to get worse and worse by the minute. "The only thing that seems to work in here is summon materia."

"Right so we are completely naked then?" Tifa replied rhetorically, pressing on through the maze and walking back down the corridor the two Reeve's had just come from.

The three of them continued to traverse the maze, no more unwanted surprises heading their way yet. "Do you think that it's messing with our heads, seeing if we go mad before we reach it?" Cloud suggested, his shoulder still in pain.

"Almost certainly…" Reeve replied, "trust nothing we see from now on."

Shortly after that pronouncement the maze started to shift itself again. Cloud and Reeve were both separated from Tifa this time. "Don't worry, just keep going!" She called through the solid black wall.

They wasted no time in doing so, the quicker they traversed the maze the better. They had lost all sense of time, minutes seemed like hours, hours like weeks. They could not tell if they were near the top of the pyramid or the bottom, nothing seemed to follow logic anymore.

It was as they turned yet another corner that Cloud and Reeve saw it, at the end of the corridor. The black light which they predicted was the materia was hovering right there. At that precise moment however, the corridor began to shift.

"We aren't losing it again…" Cloud cried, and then burst into a sprint as the wall at the end began to slowly close in. He would never make it. From a wall to his right burst the mighty warrior that was Odin astride his horse. He hoisted Cloud onto his shoulder and galloped as fast as he could towards the end.

The wall had nearly shut as Odin threw Cloud with all his might through to the other side, in the process getting himself crushed in the wall with a sickening crunch.

Cloud looked around at the circular room he now stood in. On a plinth in the middle was the light source. Upon closer inspection he saw that it was in fact not the materia, merely an ominous black light. He had come all this way and could see no other option, he reached out his hand and touched it.

Around him, his surroundings began to change, the black walls turning into white stone, pure white, a blinding white. He was now standing in a cathedral sized room, at the other end was another raised plinth, besides which stood two figures. He approached them cautiously, noticing that it was a man and a woman.

"…Rufus Shinra?" Cloud asked, noticing the man who turned round upon hearing his name.

"Nice to see you again Cloud…" He was standing next to what was unmistakably the summon, Shiva, who had also turned round to look at him. Behind Rufus on a pedestal was a small black orb.

Cloud noticed that Rufus' once good eye was now completely scarred and white. Wondering what did this and if he could actually see him, Cloud took a few steps closer silently.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you…" Rufus said warningly, "…the black materia is mine now, and Sephiroth will die from it…" Without any warning he suddenly turned round and picked up the black orb.

The white room vanished, they were both standing in the big black room once more, only the maze had vanished. Lying several feet away unconscious was Reeve. And back right near the entrance was Yuffie Tifa and Red. Rufus and Shiva had already started to make a run for it, the room had started to collapse…

Cloud made a bolt for it seconds later, hurling Reeve over his good shoulder and running as fast as he could. The others were waiting by the door, watching helplessly as Cloud did all he could to manoeuvre out of the way of falling debris. Amazingly, he reached the door unscathed, where Rufus had vanished was anyone's guess.

The passage beyond was beginning to collapse as well. The companions ran as fast as they could towards the light of day, reaching it just in time. Rufus Shinra and Shiva were outside flanked by Tseng, Reno and Rude. The pyramid behind them seemed unaltered.

"I think you can leave this to us now…" Rufus said to them, holding a gun in one hand and the materia in the other, "…goodbye Cloud, my regards to Elena."

A shadow all of a sudden engulfed Rufus for a moment, then hovered between the two parties and solidified into none other than Josh, who was now holding the black materia. "Thank you very much, this saves us a whole load of effort!"

"Josh!" Alex had taken control, "Josh what are you doing!" He looked at her, yet he did not seem to register who she was, moments later he turned back into the shadow and vanished before their very eyes.

Rufus was on the floor unconscious with no sign of Shiva anywhere. Tseng was checking his wellbeing and Reno and Rude looked completely lost without orders.

The sound of a helicopter then filled the air, and looking up, Yuffie shouted "It's Vincent!"

They all looked at the chopper which had descended just low enough for them to get on board. Leaving the Turks behind, they all got on as quick as they could and took off. It was not just Vincent on board, Barret was also there, and in the pilot's seat was none other than.

"Cid!" Tifa cried, running over to him.

"Long time no see!" He replied, not taking his eyes off where they were flying. "Now Vincent where am I taking this junk heap?"

"The nearest airfield." He replied, "Long journey ahead of us and not much time…"

A/N I'll upload the chapters weekly every sunday from now on, hope you like it guys.

R