Disclaimer: I do not now or before and most likely not in the future, own Final Fantasy, Square Enix or any of the characters.

A/N: Note at the end of the chapter.

Reviews, critiques and flames are welcome. I absolutely love all reviews about the story as it gives me motivation, I use good constructive criticism to help my writing improve and I feed the flames to the fires of my imagination.

Thanks to my before posting beta Queen of Jokers and my after posting beta SubZeroChimera!

"There is only one way to happiness, and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will." -Epictetus

Chapter 56

Cloud stood and watched Sephiroth for a few minutes when Red came down the hall to check on them, he asked, "Red, could you leave us for a minute?" Red nodded and turned back around, going back to the labs where Harding disappeared into. Cautiously, he approached Sephiroth, "Hey Seph let me help you." Sephiroth finally looked at him and in his eyes was something that Cloud had never seen in him before, genuine fear. He returned his gaze to the cell. Cloud said nothing.

Finally Sephiroth backed up to the wall across from the cell. Leaning on the wall he slid down to the floor. Cloud, not knowing what to do or say, stood still and turned to see if they were alone. Sephiroth reached up and grabbed his hand, Cloud winced at the tight hold he had on him, "Could you stay here with me for a little while?" Sephiroth never looked up at Cloud.

Without hesitation Cloud sat down on the floor next to him. Sephiroth kept a tight grip on Cloud's hand and stared into that vacant space of a cell. Searching as many memories as he could, he tried to find the memories that belonged to Sephiroth. Jumbled, they were difficult to separate, but there was nothing that he could attribute to Sephiroth's reaction to his old cell. He knew something bad happened, he could feel it coming from him. The night that he found him on the floor in the bathroom came to him, and the question. He'd asked Cloud the same question that night.

After a few moments, Sephiroth regained his composure, he stood and took a deep breath, placing his hand on Cloud's shoulder and said softly, "I just want to say, thank you for being my friend." In the tone of his voice, Cloud could tell he was still troubled.

Sephiroth's face was tense and deep stress lines crossed his features. Calmly, Cloud said, "No Seph, thank you for being my friend." With nothing else on the subject spoken aloud, they continued to the infirmary.

Digging through the few medical files that were left behind, they found nothing that they thought would help, "Let's go find Harding and Red." Cloud went out the door and Zack sat there against the wall, appearing to be asleep. Cloud picked him up and left the infirmary. In the hall, Red seemed to smell something of interest, "What's up Red?"

"I smell something, odd, but strangely familiar," He walked down the hall toward the sealed Lab 2. Harding emerged from Lab 1 and he had handfuls of papers.

Harding shocked look at Sephiroth elicited a demanding question from the Physician's Assistant, "What happened to you? You look like you just woke up from a bad dream or somethin'." Sephiroth stared but didn't say anything. Stepping forward, Harding yelled, "Wait!" Harding stared at a door that was tucked back in a small recess of the hall. Sephiroth froze in his steps and everyone looked at the man as he spoke, "Hojo sealed this after Jade outgrew her incubator. The extra tank that he had in here was where he put her. I wonder… I wonder if she is still in there. No, he had to have taken her back to Midgar." He shook his head, "Surely he would have taken her. They sealed everyone out of here not long after your escape."

"She who?" Red sniffed the air again.

"Jade's mother. Well her birth mother, that is to say…" He trailed off, "Let's just open the door." Harding tried his code, but it didn't open all the way. It seemed that something had fallen behind the door. Harding helped put Zack down. Sephiroth and Cloud both kicked at the door and finally got it open enough to squeeze through. They stepped aside and Harding entered first. He reached over to the side wall and flipped the lights on. The tank in the corner held a form. Harding gagged and turned away from the sight, "That is the woman who gave birth to Jade. Hojo just left her. I can't believe this. I could have saved her," His tone changed to despondence, "Her name was Bonnie Hamilton and I could have saved her but I was too scared of Hojo."

As Cloud and Sephiroth walked closer, they could see what was left of a human being. Bits of flesh and hair floated around the tank with the flow of the water jets. The water was a sickening color of rusty brown with mako mixed in with it. They turned away and looked at Red. Harding had left the room and they could hear him retching in the hall.

Red stepped further into the room, "Thankfully that is not what I smell." He stepped farther in and made a wide berth around the tank. He got to a wall that was covered in book shelves, with books, papers, notes and notebooks, "There is something behind here."

Sephiroth and Cloud began looking for a way in there. With a loud grunt and a screech of metal on metal, Cloud found a lever and pulled it. A dark hallway that was covered in cobwebs, stretched in front of them. Sephiroth went out to the hallway and get Harding, who protested, "I'm not going in there."

"Could you stay out here with Zack then?" Harding nodded and Sephiroth returned to the new hallway.

They entered cautiously, Cloud lead the group and they had to walk single file to get through the passage. At the end of the hallway, a door stood. It was old and broken down from years of neglect and rats chewing at it. Cloud pushed and the door opened with a creak. They all entered, "What I smelled is in this room." He walked over to a coffin in the middle of the room, "It's in here." Drawing their swords, Cloud took the tip of his boot and lifted the lid. All three of them leaned in and they all three said, "Huh?" in unison.

A perfectly preserved body was dressed in all black with a red band wrapped around his head, hair as black as Zack's. He had a golden claw on his left hand and the blonde said with a fair amount of uneasiness, "Well this was a big waste of time." Cloud turned to leave and Red jumped and a short growl sounded out of him. Cloud turned and saw the corpse moving to sit up. The blond said as he raised an eyebrow, "Well there's something you don't see every day." Sephiroth took the time to look at Cloud and then back at the coffin.

"Who are you?" The man asked.

"We could ask you the same," Sephiroth raised his eyebrows along with his sword.

The man stood, "I am Vincent Valentine. You are?"

'He was very polite for a dead guy.' Cloud thought, "My name is Cloud, this is Red and he's Sephiroth."

Vincent instantly turned and looked at Sephiroth, "What did he say your name was?" A look of shock quickly flashed in the strange man's eyes.

Sephiroth looked over at Cloud and then back at Vincent, "My name is Sephiroth. Is there a problem?"

Vincent studied his face, "You look like her."

"Her who? What are you talking about?" Sephiroth began to get upset and he stood straighter.

"We need answers. Perhaps you have some for us," Red sat down and his good eye gleamed.

Ignoring Red, "I knew your birth mother. She and I… Where is Hojo? I owe him a visit." His jaw tensed as he reached over and picked up a large handgun and placed it in the holster. As they walked slowly back to the lab, Cloud quickly filled him in about their history at the labs. The strange man held on to his surprise well enough that he sounded neutral, "Not only did Hojo experiment on you while you were in the womb, but your whole life? I heard screams that would wake me from my slumber, was that the three of you?"

Sephiroth ducked under the low door frame and recounted with very little emotion, "Apparently."

When they reached the hall, Harding was laid out on the floor and Zack was gone. Cloud instantly panicked, "Zack!" He heard nothing in return.

Sephiroth checked Harding, "He's still alive." He stood back up, "Red, can you tell where he is?"

He ruffled his head back and forth, "Yes." He raised his head and sniffed the air, "This way." He padded back down the hallway toward the isolation cells and the single bed cells. He jerked his head in the direction of one of the isolation cells.

Cloud stepped forward and peered in. Zack sat on his legs leaning down to the floor as he spoke quietly to himself, "225 tiles, it's always 225 tiles, 225 tiles…" He repeated over and over. His fingers traced each tile individually as he spoke.

Cloud looked over at Sephiroth. He stepped into the cell and crouched down and picked Zack's face up to look at him, "Zack. Look at me." Zack's eyes darted around and finally stopped at Cloud's face.

He smiled and raised his hand to Cloud. With his open hand he tenderly cupped Cloud's face, "Thank you. You came…" He looked down at his hand in his lap, "Here…" He nudged his hand into Cloud's stomach, "Here take it, you promised, you promised." Then he looked down at the floor and in a hushed whisper, "You promised." He nodded his head and nudged his hand into Cloud again. Cloud took what was in his hand and Zack crawled to the other side of the cell. He looked at what Zack gave him, a large knife.

Zack continued to speak as Cloud tried to figure out what was happening, "This is where I belong, it started here. I belong here…" He lay down on his back and bent his knees to fit between the walls and stared up at the ceiling. Zack laughed, "I belong here. You promised. Cloud, you promised."

Lowering his eyes, Cloud asked somberly, "What was it that I promised?"

Zack looked over at him, "225 tiles, always 225 tiles." He raised his arms straight up, "The monsters are coming…! You promised."

"Zack! What did I promise, please tell me," He lowered his voice to a whisper, "I forgot," Cloud knew deep down, but he didn't want to admit it. Looking at his best friend, insane and starved, he shook his head, "Please Zack let me help you."

Angry, he yelled. "You promised!" He sat up and glared at him, took him by the shoulders and shook him, "You promised you'd help me die! You promised!"

Cloud shook his head and quietly said, "No Zack… No I didn't."

Zack collapsed on the floor and rolled into a ball, "All the papers say I'm dead, he said everyone thinks I'm dead. Sephiroth and Cloud, they don't need me, I don't need me. Aerith don't need me." He sat up and fiddled his fingers in mock snaps, "Not Zack, not anymore, Z, specimen Z. That's me now, Z," An odd laugh shook Zack's boney frame.

Cloud turned to Sephiroth and he couldn't believe his ears. Vincent looked at the group and asked, "Did Hojo do this to him?"

Without looking away from Zack, Sephiroth answered quietly, "Yes."

Harding ran up to them holding his head with one hand and a stack of papers in another, "I found some papers that may indicate what is happening to him and what Jade is up to."

"I think everyone is frightened of Hojo at one time or another," Then Vincent asked curiously, "Who is Jade?"

Harding said, "She is Zack's, Sephiroth's, Cloud's and Jenova's daughter." Vincent gave Harding a puzzled look. Harding added with a shrug, "Hojo and his DNA toys."

"Well there doesn't seem to be any equipment left, they must have taken most of it. Luckily, they hadn't taken all if the computers yet," Harding said as they made their way back up the stairs.

Zack hung over Cloud's shoulder as he rambled, "My mom makes blueberry pancakes. Pan-cakes. Cakes," His fingers moved as if he were counting something. "Cloud's hair looks like a chocobo tail, pointy," He then started poking Cloud in his butt cheeks, "Pointy, poky."

"Stop poking me in the butt Zack," The flat tone of his voice sounded as if he dealt with this problem every day.

Vincent looked at the man slung over the blonde's shoulders, "He appears to be ill."

At that moment, Zack threw up all down the backs of Cloud's legs. Cloud stopped walking and exhaled, "Damn it."

Once everyone made it up the stairs, Harding snapped his fingers and pointed up in the air, "I forgot. There are papers that I printed out, but didn't get a chance to send off. I'll be right back." He dashed down the hall and into one of the rooms. A loud rustling, a single crash, an explicative, and then he emerged with another handful of papers, "This has some information in it that may be useful. I hadn't read all of it before you escaped and I got transferred back to Midgar."

Once outside, Sephiroth didn't realize that he'd essentially been holding his breath the entire time they were down there. Cloud quickened his pace as the vomit seemed to be soaking through his pants. Everyone was upstairs in their room. When Cloud entered his room, all the eyes went to him and his cargo, "Tifa I need a warm washcloth please." Zack continued to mumble quietly to himself. Cloud wiped Zack's face clean and then promptly entered the bathroom.

Sephiroth slowly made his way upstairs, he was completely drained. Aerith searched the faces and Sephiroth was not one of them. Walking out to the hall, his back was to her and he stared out at the view from the window. Aerith laid eyes on him and his face had no color, "Seph, what happened?"

He forced a smile and lowered his head again. She put her hand to his bicep and slowly ran her hand down his arm and took his hand. A gentle squeeze and the feel of her head resting on his shoulder, he relaxed. The tension in his muscles lessened and he took his other arm and raised his hand to her cheek. A soft graze of skin, she closed her eyes and inhaled.

"Aerith, I'm sorry," His gaze returned to the view outside the window, "I am not the man I thought I was." His voice trembled and was almost a whisper.

She grabbed him and forced him to look at her, "You are exactly the man you need to be. Don't forget that."

He lightly shook his head, "You don't understand Aerith, things… I can't…"

Shaking his arm gently, his eyes found hers, "I understand what I need to understand. You owe me no explanation of the goings on in that place." His gaze dropped for a moment, she finished, "Don't force it, only when you're ready." Her smile felt like it healed him and he embraced her.

Vincent topped the stairs, and Sephiroth turned, "Aerith, this is Vincent. He was also a victim of Hojo."

Vincent bowed a small bow of respect, "An Ancient, it is a pleasure."

She giggled and placed her hand to her mouth, "No need for all of that, please just call me Aerith." Her smile was strong and he stood again.

Thanks to everyone who reads, favorites, subscribes and/or reviews, I appreciate your time and I dedicate all of this to you. To quote another author, "Getting reviews makes me feel all warm and squishy."

Please send me your reviews if you want. It is really easy. Just click your arrow in the little box, write what you thought or felt about the chapter and then click right down there, just below the box. A little lower… a little to the right… yeah, right there! Click it! *grinning*

A/N 2: As I stated in the author's note in the last chapter-If there are guest reviews that are attacking other reviewers, childishly calling them names and is not about the story, I will start deleting them. I will NOT tolerate attacks to the other reviewers. In the mean time, I will pray for you, guest/troll. I will pray that you are treated better than the way I'm sure that you've treated many others both off and online. As we say here in Texas, "Bless your little ole heart."

Total number of guest reviews I've deleted (including the one that I've already mentioned in chapter 53), as of this chapter update - 3

I've already sent out a message to a few of you, but I wanted to say something here too. Now some of us have poked the troll, had a fantastic laugh and now it's time to move on.

*breaks into song*

Let it go, let it go
Turn away and slam the door
I don't care what they're going to say
Let the storm rage on
The troll never bothered me anyway

[*Fit of giggles*]