Remain - Chrysalis book 4

by abigail squeak

Natalie/Lee aka Marin Oakley (she/they) managed to escape the SOLDIER program and land in the Slums under Midgar. They still don't remember who she was before becoming a SOLDIER, while she landed a big job that leads to bigger trouble. Meanwhile their friends on Earth haven't forgotten their friend Marin. And have to work with the enigmatic figure that calls itself 'Ardyn'.

17. Chapter 17

Natalie heard sounds of shuffling, breathing, someone coughing. She was on her side on a bed, nearly curled into a ball like a half-fetal position.

There was a sterile smell, of new bandages and perfume and a few other smells. Whatever it was, it was definitely not a room she had been in before. Not anywhere she could remember. Tensing her wrists and ankles, she wasn't bound, at least.

Flexing her elbow, she felt her Materia arm guard was in place under her coat sleeve.

Someone lay right behind her back, breathing slowly. Her eyes still ached with the memory of a greater pain, she opened them. She saw a dark wall of an interior room somewhere in ShinRa by the design, gray industrial wall panels. Murmurs of her friends around her.

She kept her breathing slow, giving herself some time to herself before talking to the others. The eye closet to the bed leaked a tear.

'It wasn't real,' she reminded herself. But she had felt his call forward. She wanted to go home, run away from all of this. It frightened her, somehow it was worse that he was real. Maybe Icicle Inn was the only place she could go that was isolated from these troubles.

Even when she had heard voices or a 'call, she had chosen whether or not to do what they said. This time was different. Like her own interior thoughts were telling her, suggesting what to do. But she knew, she KNEW that their source was external now. That they were another will superimposed on her own, urging her forward. She remembered the call to climb to the North Pole up the mountain, when Genesis was stalking her with his clones. And how she had other priorities than to be the first to the top. This was far more harrowing. She had thought that Jamie and Sephiroth's images were the hallucinations of a mad woman, her. But other people could see Sephiroth, could hear him, be pulled by his call. There was comfort in knowing that she was not going crazy. But it was little comfort in the face that it was real, despite that he was dead. He must have faked his death and this was not over. That was the only explanation.

Which meant he was coming for her. She wanted to scream and run and hide. But she would only drag Harold and Shelly into her mess. Sephiroth could kill them far more easily than he could try to kill her. She couldn't do that to her parents.

'The only way to spring this trap is forward and through, so we can get close enough to smash it.' Her own words, but she wished she had not said them. Her only recompense was that she was not alone in this.

She hazarded a guess that it was Cloud behind her, who's breathing had just changed.

"Cloud." Tifa approached the bed.

"Oh, thank goodness," Aerith. "You're awake."

"Yeah" Cloud said, shifting his weight in the bed to sit up.

"How about Natalie?" Barret asked.

Natalie spoke aloud to the wall. "I'm awake now. Give me a minute." She still lay in the half-fetal position, facing the wall. She pulled her hood up over her head.

"Where are we?" Cloud asked.

"Where I lived," Aerith explained, "-when I was still a child."

Natalie waited for Cloud to shuffle around and get out of the bed, before she stretched and rolled over. So she could shuffle off the furniture herself. With the last pangs of a headache, she had her eyes downcast. She didn't want to look at anyone in that moment. She could see Aerith leaning towards the bed, as Aerith stood over by the wall.

Nobody asked, Cloud didn't volunteer anything, neither did Natalie.

Natalie could hear the Buster sword settle back on Cloud's back. As she stood, Barret was also lost in thought, looking at the floor. Red was laying down on the floor over there. He looked bored.

Natalie had seen so many people do that over the years, pretending not to listen and hearing every single thing that was going on. She liked to consider that she had perfected that pose, when she wanted to use it. She could see that in Red now. The way he relaxed with his head on his paws, but those ears twitched and gathered every word around them.

Cloud went back to business first. "...Aerith. Before we break outta here, talk to us. There's so much we don't know."

Natalie kept to herself, noticing all the medical supplies along the wall. She took in the giant mural on the wall. 'I get the feeling I may never see this again.' As she picked up her own, lighter and thinner, weapon and belted it back on. At least it looked small compared to the Buster Sword. Every sword looked weak compared to that sword. Her thoughts drifted to home in the North Pole, she wanted to return there and never leave. It would be safe if no one could find her there.

Aerith gathered herself and began, "I'm...a descendant of the Ancients. That's pretty much it, really." she walked around as she talked. "Oh, but just so you know, that's not their actual name. They called themselves, 'the Cetra'."

Barret began a recitation from his position on the couch. "We who are born of the planet, with her we speak. Her flesh we shape. Unto her promised land shall we one day return." He got up and went into full orator mode. "By her loving grace and providence may we take our place in paradise."

"You know it!" Aerith told him.

The four of them had heard it in the museum VR suite.

"Yeah well...Honestly I thought that part was just a fairy tale." Barret admitted.

Aerith shook her head, "ShinRa thinks it's true."

"When the war of the bests brings about the world's end..." Natalie mumbled to herself. Recalling the opening words of Loveless.

"What was that?" Barret asked, he stood within reach of Natalie's arm.

"The opening of another fairy tale." she found everyone looking at her. "Loveless, the opening words to Loveless."

"Isn't that a musical?" Tifa asked.

Natalie turned to face everyone, "It started as an epic poem. I collected a few stories while I've gotten around. But after everything that's been happening. I've been re-reading it." She shook her head. "Forget it." Natalie went back to looking at the mural, "Aerith, you said that ShinRa thinks the Ancients words are true?"

"Yeah, they've been searching for the Promised land for a long time." Aerith told them.

Tifa stepped forward, "And they must think you can lead them to it...Can you?"

"Nope," Aerith was shaking her head. "Someday, maybe, I'll find it in me. But now? Not even if I wanted to."

Natalie wanted to doubt that the promised land existed. Though that looked less and less likely the deeper into trouble she went. And if ti was really real, she knew that she didn't want ShinRa to get it. Likely no one in the room did. Thinking back Natalie wondered how many years of her life she actually remembered. Coming out of that black hole and living in Icicle Inn felt like a lifetime ago. When ti was around nine or ten years now, or more.

Barret stepped up, interrupted Natalie's thoughts "Even if you could, that land belongs to the-" He cut himself off, "I mean… To you and your people. ShinRa's after it because they believe it's rich in Mako. Mako they've got no right to claim."

'Yeah, none of us want ShinRa to have that much Mako.' Natalie thought.

Barret continued, "But they'll try to take it anyway, won't they?" He moved around, gesturing with both his arm and gun arm, "Greedy bastards'll never stop." He turned back to face them, "Ok. New plan. Y'all take Aerith and get the hell outta here."

Natalie's breath caught.

Barret went on with his plan, "Me, I'mma go bust some ShinRa heads."

Aerith stepped in, "Barret, wait.. you can't do that.."

The air stirred as some wraiths entered through the ceiling.

Natalie went into a stance with everyone else. She noticed Aerith stood at ease and watched the wraiths, waiting.

"Oh, great. These assholes again! Probably some ShinRa science Experiment."

"I don't think so..." Natalie ventured a guess. Not that she knew what they were, but figured that they were not from ShinRa.

Red XIII spoke up, "Whispers. Perhaps best described as arbiters of fate."

"What?" Natalie asked. 'Atleast somebody knows something.'

Red continued, "They are drawn to those who attempt to alter destiny's course and ensure they do not."

Natalie thought about living all these years, surviving and being left alone by the wraiths, these 'Arbiters of Fate'. Until she tried, hard, to help someone or another many times. And the Wraiths, the Whispers, had appeared to her.

'Shawn had intended to mess with things, talk to one of the locals, poke around that damned mansion. And an invisible force carried him off that cliff to his death.' Shawn had been up to something, Natalie didn't remember what. But they had appeared on that road trip from hell. And now he was dead. And Natalie could see the Whispers. But so could others now.

Tifa asked Red, "Like capital D… 'Destiny'?"

Red answered Tifa, "The flow of the great river that is the planet, from inception to oblivion."

"And you're saying that that flow is somehow...fixed?" Tifa asked.

Natalie bit back interjecting herself about getting stopped by the Whispers over the years.

"Yes. For it is the will of the planet itself." Red nodded sagely.

'Gaia,' Natalie prayed. 'Was it always your will for me to be here, now?' she wondered. The Whispers stopped Lee when they had had led her to this point on this day. She wanted to cut them apart and stab them in their "D' for 'Destiny.'

Barret wasn't happy about it, "so if we're destined for a bleak future, these Whispers will try to keep us on that course?"

Natalie added "Or prevent someone from creating a bleak future against Gaia's will." A Whisper drifted a little and pointed it's empty hooded form at Natalie. She said nothing more as Barret rolled on.

"Now wait just a damn minute! How in the hell can you possibly know any of that?" Barret demanded of Red.

Natalie watched Aerith, as everyone looked to Red for answers.

'Oh, Aerith. I'm stuck between you and Sephiroth.' She had feelings of friendship for one and history with the other. As well as the nightmares, and brain pains. Not to mention the hallucinations of Jamie and Sephiroth's voice.

Barret went on, "Spouting that cryptic stuff-which could all be bullshit! I mean, ain't you a ShinRa lab rat-er-dog?"

Red looked away, offended, "I'm not a rat-dog." He looked up to Aerith as she looked to him, "When Aerith reached out to me...I found this knowledge of the Whispers."

'No, no, no' Natalie thought. 'I don't understand this. I have to, we have to, figure these things out.' She held her tongue, but for how much longer?

Aerith told all of them, "Listen to me!" A whisper came down from the ceiling and began to circle Aerith, "Please..." More circled her.

"Aerith," Cloud called to her with concern.

Aerith put up her hands in placation, and continued. "The ShinRa Electric Power Company isn't the real enemy."

Natalie looked away from the whisper to Aerith. 'I know.'

Aerith kept talking to all of them from behind a swirl of Whispers. "It started with them, sure...But I promise you..there's a much bigger threat. I just want to do everything in my power to help. All of you."

Natalie turned her hood to the mural, 'What do I tell them? And how much?' She turned back to Aerith.

"All of you," Aerith went on. "And the planet."

Cloud looked like he wanted to say something. "Aerith. What are you not telling us?"

Natalie wondered when and if they would ask that of her next.

Aerith shook her head. On the verge of speaking but keeping silent.

Natalie had lived that feeling for years. Knowing that she kept her own secrets to herself made it hurt more. 'I know that feeling.'

"I'm lost I a maze, and…every step is taking me further from the path… Every time the Whispers touch me… I lose something. A part of myself."

Natalie thought, 'It's going to happen some time. And the longer I wait, the harder it's going to be to tell them what I know, where I've been, what I've seen. And what I've done.' She looked away from Aerith and the whorl of Whispers around the other woman. 'But where do I start? And where do I stop?" She wasn't sure how much to tell the others, about her history, or how much would be enough. She knew she had been a fool to think that she could change or save Sephiroth. But she loved him away, the man he used to be.

'Am I a fool for wanting to save the world too?' Natalie thought of Angeal inexplicably. Wanting to save the world from dangers similar to him. And now she was here and he was dead.

Aerith laughed a little to herself, speaking as if she quoted someone "Follow them. The yellow flowers."

"Follow your heart." Natalie echoed under her breath. The advice that Roceler had given her a long time ago. He was possibly the last living Ancient, other than Aerith. And now even he was gone too. Natalie had never forgotten those last words from him, over the years.

The Whispers drew tighter around Aerith, she started crouching down.

While Natalie waxed over meeting another Ancient. Tifa reached into the Whispers, and pulled Aerith out by the hand. "It's ok," Tifa told Aerith. "We'll find a way out together."

The whirl of whispers dispersed into every direction.

Natalie wanted to talk, to spill the beans. She also wanted to keep her secrets to herself. She was torn. 'I shouldn't keep secrets from the others.'

The Whispers decided for her. Making their own ring around her.

"Say what?" Barret said. As they all turned to regard the new complication.

'There is so much I want to do.' Natalie thought. 'So much I want to say right now.' She was a mixed bag of emotions and conflicts as she turned her face from the wall to look the others in the eye. She looked to Aerith, then Cloud as Barret spoke up.

"Don't tell me you're another Ancient. Are you?" Barret asked.

Natalie looked at Barret. "I'm not a Cetra. I-" 'A gift, fallen from the sky.' She shook her head and searched for her own words. Taking everyone in. "I don't have 'special powers'. I don't hear the voices of the Planet. I- I'm just a person."

The Whispers had not stopped her from talking so far. So she continued to test the waters. Her eye caught one of the Whispers turning to regard her before whirling around behind her. She shook her head. "I've been having a bit of a time this year. I don't think we have the time."

"Start somewhere." Cloud told her.

"I- I have history in this building."

"We already know that." Barret said.

Natalie wanted to say outloud to Aerith 'Do you hear them? Angeal. Genesis. Zack. Or have they returned to the planet, beyond where you can hear them?'

Natalie looked down at the red furred whatever Red was, in his remaining yellow eye. "I don't know what to say. Ask"

Red asked "Why would the Whispers be interested in you now?"

"I don't know!" She hated the lie, but anything she said risked being too much. "I mean, I don't know exactly why, or why now."

Aerith looked anguished from behind everyone else.

Natalie guessed. "I...I just want things to turn out better for," She let the words die on her lips. "No I'm being selfish. It doesn't matter what I want, it's what everyone needs. What the planet needs."

"Natalie..." Tifa reached out a hand to pull Natalie out.

"What are you not telling us?" Cloud said.

"I-" A whisper pulled closer around her. 'What can I say that doesn't ruin everything?' "I don't know what to say."

"Say something." Cloud told her.

Natalie shook her head. "I-" 'There are too many secrets.'

The whispers closed on Natalie, buffeting her as her head started pounding. She put her arms protectively around her head, "I don't want anyone else to get hurt."

"How did you get hurt?" Aerith asked.

"Tell them." Jamie urged Natalie. "Tell them Natalie. About me. How else will they know they can't trust you?"

"Fuck ShinRa, it's all their fault."

"What did they do?" cloud asked.

"ShinRa kept me a prisoner here. Made me a SOLDIER, sure." She cracked open an eye, the whispers hadn't closed in any closer. "I thought I could be strong enough. But-" She stopped when the Wraiths curled in inches tighter.

"You're not making any sense," Tifa said.

'I can't tell them it all, I don't think the Whispers would ever let me tell the whole truth.' "Go back far enough and it's ShinRa that's taken everything from me. I just want it to stop. For the voices to stop!" 'I tell them everything and they won't be my friends anymore.' She thought with anguish.

Natalie was looking at the ground under her arms, if the Whispers hadn't been in the way, it would have been obvious that she was avoiding looking at Aerith, not wanting to see the look on the other woman's face. 'I don't want to lose anyone else.'

"I don't want anyone else to get hurt!" She refused to say anymore, there were too many questions. 'I can't talk about my past.' She did not want to have that conversation, about Sephiroth most of all. How she could love someone that had become a monster. And here they all were. 'Maybe they could understand what had happened in Sanford, if I did not know. But I do. And I followed my heart anyway.'

"I don't have anything to say that disagrees with Aerith. Just leave me alone!" She yelled to the Whispers. She was a tangle of emotions and memories. Love for what Sephiroth had been, fear and hate for what he had become. Her insides whirled around as much as the Whispers did outside of her. 'But one person in particular,' She thought.

"Please!" Natalie pleaded with the others, the Whispers, she just wanted to be let go. She wanted free from the questions, from whatever the Whispers wanted from her.

The Whispers blew tighter around her. She couldn't hear her own voice in her ears as she tried to say, "Gaia, why wouldn't you let me SAVE HIM!?"

A hand grasped around her arm and pulled.

Natalie went with it, through the wall of whispers. She kept her feet from dragging, as she went through the wall of wind and the chills of Whispers passing through her. Stumbling, she got out of her crouch and started climbing to her feet.

Out of the whorl of them, she opened her eyes to Tifa And Aerith who had grasped both her hands.

The stabbing Natalie's head was fading to a dull ache. As she gave Tifa a weak smile, Cloud was shaking it off. "Thanks." Natalie looked down again, she did not want to face Aerith or Cloud in that moment, brushing herself off to smooth out what the Whisper's winds had rustled.

One of Barret's hands tapped her from behind, "It's ok. we'll get 'em for what they took from yah, from all of us."

"It's more than just SOLDIER." Tifa asked, "Isn't it?"

Aerith had a look of concern on her face.

Cloud asked, "save who? Who couldn't you save?"

Natalie sighed and shook her head, avoided looking at Cloud, "It only started with ShinRa, it's so much more. Let's just get out of here first." 'Maybe later? We have to get out of here first' "SOLDIER's just one part of it." She did not dare speak of failing to save Sephiroth aloud. It would lead to too many other questions.

"You still haven't given us a straight answer." Cloud told Natalie, just as Aerith was opening her own mouth.

A big hand patted Natalie's shoulder again. "We can talk afta' all of this."

Natalie wanted to pull her hood up, to hide from their questions. There were still a few Whispers about, flying above them, in and out of the ceiling. "Yeah, soon." She promised them, meeting Cloud's eyes then looking away.

The Whispers in the room dispersed, this time they left the group alone, disappearing quickly through the walls and ceiling.

Before anyone spoke more, the building shook. There was a short rumble in the background, faraway.

The monitors in the room flickered to life, full of gray static. They all turned to watch, the screen flickered to life with Mayor Domino's face.

Natalie had pause, but no one else in the room was overly concerned.

"Ah-ha! There you are!" the Mayor cried with success.

A ham hand reached over to pull the camera to the side. Wedge came into view to talk to the group.

Natalie was glad that he was well enough to be walking around, double for the last year of becoming friends.

Domino complained, "What are you doing man!"

"Hey guys!" Wedge talked into the camera. "Long time no see!"

'Hard light mako-powered holograms, and ShinRa still can't afford good microphones.' Natalie thought. Good video-phone tech was apparently a hard ask for the company.

"Wedge!?" Barret was a little cross.

Tifa was concerned, "You're here!?"

Barret piled on the concern, "Y-you shouldn't be up and moving!"

Wedge was rubbing his stomach, "I'm feeling much better thanks to Elmyra's cooking! Ah!" He went on, "But that's not what I wanted to talk to you about! Listen- any moment now-"

The camera shook, Natalie's teeth rattled, the building shook with tremors. Much closer than when Sector Seven had gone down. Barret and Aerith had to correct their balance with a step or two.

"What was that?" Tifa asked, "An explosion?"

One of the PA system alarms went off from the mayor's office.

Wedge continued, "HQ's running the show this time. They're raising hell to try and flush out the president."

Natalie had a sick feeling of something in her stomach, she was anxious that she was forgetting something. Something very important. She hated that feeling.

"Fucking president of the world can go and suck it." She said aloud.

That voice over the PA kept going in the background from Domino's office.

Domino dragged his camera to talk to them. "This complicates matters. That explosion just now put the whole building on high alert." The screen changed to a building map with a glowing orange dot in a hallway Natalie did not recognize the shape of.

'That's probably our room. I wished I had had a room behind all that hall and possible blockable spaces.' She took it back immediately. This was Hojo's area. Natalie shuddered at the thought of being 'here' at any time other than right now.

The map started drawing a line route, past blocked doorways and halls through the floor to another room on their level.

Tifa was worried, "So we're trapped in here?"

"No need to panic little lady. See? You can still move freely within Hojo's Laboratory.

"I wish I had had friends like you years ago," Natalie commented. Before she realized that the Mayor might not have known about her residence here, before his election. Unless he had read her dossier like she had told him too.

A third floor centered on the screen and drew another path through that floor to guide them to the helipad on the roof of the top floor of the ShinRa building.

Wedge kept going about the instructions. "Find your way to the roof. An AVALANCHE chopper will come to extract you."

Barret was in disbelief, "HQ's bailing us out? I doubt it. Not after all the shit we've pulled."

"I asked them really nicely, "Wedge declared. "Like, super-duper nicely!"

"Thanks Wedge," Tifa told him.

"Just get to the roof, OK?" Wedge put his patented thumb up for encouragement.

The screen powered off.

Barret sighed, "I didn't ask Wedge to do any of that."

Cloud, hard as ever, "Yeah, well, I'm glad he did."

"Huh?" Barret was surprised at something Cloud had said.

Aerith had a smile for Cloud.

'We are, or at least the others are getting Cloud out of his shell.'

"Huh, well. I'm a still chew him out for it later." Barret promised.

Natalie reminded herself to try harder to let others help her out. She would have felt better about their attempts if her heart wasn't squirming over Sephiroth at the moment.

Barret led the way out of Aerith's room. "Anyway, we gotta get to the roof right?"

Natalie's stomach dropped when they rounded a corner and some kind of medical or surgical equipment and things were visible through an observation window.

'Just a little bit of an advantage to being kept out of these floors for so long,'

Red picked up the plan, "Then we can use the same elevator that Hojo did."

They made their way through a giant lab that Natalie had not seen before. It looked disturbed, like they had fought their way up to where Aerith and Natalie had been kept.

"The elevator," Barret asked, "Was it this way?"

"Yes," Red had picked up a trail, "His odor still lingers."

"I hate elevators." Natalie said as they piled onto the service elevator.

"Even after all of those stairs?" Barret asked.

"Yeah, well. You don't know whats on the other side of the door until it's too late."

"Don't tell me you like going up 60 floors of tha' damn things." Barret tossed the curse casually at Natalie.

Natalie laughed, "Even I don't like them that much."

Natalie could smell the Mako as they got off the elevator. There were some small fires, though the vents in this place kept the air clear.

"What happened here?" Barret asked.

"The little ones in the pods," Aerith said. "Where did they go?"

Natalie scanned the ceiling and looked for movement and followed the others to the next elevator. Cloud was taking the rear this time.

Red sniffed the air, "And it stinks in here." He stopped at the stairs to their exit, covered with collapsed metal framing. "Back there."

Barret surveyed the obstacle next to Red, "Now what do we do?"

Natalie continued to scan high and low for surprises. While Tifa and Cloud waited for the stairs to clear.

Barret started picking at the metal framing blocking the stairs. "there's only one thing we can do." Red began to help.

A shadow near the ceiling moved from something big enough to hide to another hiding spot.

"Cloud!" Natalie drew her sword. Looking for whatever was sneaking about up there. "Up high." The shadow launched itself at the ground and leapt and bounded towards them.

Cloud turned and drew his own sword.

The shadow turned out to be more humanoid entities. Like the ones in the underground lab.

Three more landed near them, the one in the lead scream-roared at them, with long eye teeth and vicious looking claws on their hands.

Cloud went through them quickly enough even without Natalie focusing on one for herself. "Nice job."

"Eh, it was only a few." He played it off, cool as usual.

Barret and Red finally cleared the way.

Natalie looked around for more of the things. Hearing Barret thank Red for his help with the stairs.

Red left Barret hanging and flicked him with the tip of his flaming tail.

"Shit, what the hell Red!?" Barret demanded of Red.

No more of the 'unknown entities' showed. So they made their way back to the elevator.

Natalie stared through the ceiling. Trouble was waiting for them upstairs, she could feel it in her gut. This was not over until they were clear of HQ and their helicopter landed safely literally anywhere else.

Cloud continued to watch their backs from the rear. Getting on the elevator after Natalie.

Standing side by side, as the elevator closed, Natalie didn't see what Cloud was looking at.

Cloud made a tiny "Oh" gasp beside her.

Unsettled, Natalie focused on a spot on the elevator door instead. She grounded herself and prepared for the unexpected when the elevator doors opened next. "I hate elevators."

---

The ride was longer than Natalie had expected. The elevator opened to a gangway over a very large, open area. With a very large central pillar of tubes and other crap that went higher above them. The interior of this part of the building surprised Natalie, she didn't like that.

Red safety lights along the floor and rails, the space went around the open pillar. With the large and wide gangways not connecting to every other gangway.

Cloud took the lead, so Natalie followed behind. Barret taking the rear from here.

"Hell is this place?" Barret asked.

Red answered, "Hojo's treasure. ShinRa's dark secret."

Natalie looked up and up the tubes. She kept her mouth shut. She had a sick feeling that they were not going to like what they were about to find.

Barret made a wish, "What I wouldn't give to burn it all down..but we need to get to the roof."

"Turning this room to slag is a problem for tomorrow." Natalie said. "Our route out is today's problem."

Barret nodded. He had been hearing all about "today and tomorrow" problems from her since they had known each other.

"I don't plan on coming back here in a day." Cloud deadpanned as he lead the way along the only connected gangplank.

"It's a metaphor," Natalie told him.

"Whatever."

They ran along the curved wall, followed the gangplank until it turned to the center of the room. In this open area things could come at them from any direction. And there was far shadowed corners everywhere. IT amde her so uncomfortable she trailed back, to keep watch.

Cloud with Tifa, Aerith and Red in a cluster in the middle. Barret was still in the rear. Natalie was just behind him, watching their backs.

They stopped halfway down the straight, taking on the clear vat in the middle of Hojo's lab.

Natalie's neck prickled. She felt like she was being watched in the huge, open space. "Someone or something is watching us." She warned the others.

Barret called from in front of her, "What is that…?"

Aerith answered, "Jenova."

Cloud flinched and grabbed his head. Bent over double, he gasped and grabbed his head with both hands.

Out of the shadows high above, black boots were followed by that black coat. Those gray pauldrons and that extra long sword, floating down from the ceiling. Between the group and proceeding forward.

Bits of the her time in the Nibelheim reactor floated up to Natalie. Then the head pains started.

Sephiroth had their back to all of them, standing right in front of Jenova.

"It's not real." Natalie said, even as her head pulsed with pain.

Cloud stalked stiffly a couple steps towards Sephiroth. "Tell me, is it really you?"

'No.' Natalie tried to remind herself, 'It's just a hallucination.' She tried to convince herself. As she gripped the rail for dear life. But she wasn't the only one who could see him this time.

Natalie tried to disbelieve it, push it back "It's not re-" she was doubled over in pain. Gritting her teeth, her head hurt. Cloud hissed in pain in front. 'Get out of my head!' she thought. "Errrrrgh."

Natalie kept grasp of the rail with one hand, to keep herself standing while bent over. To squeeze something while both her upper arms burned and wanted to melt away. She wanted to walk forward, the only way forward. Natalie refused to get closer to the image in her head, in her and Cloud's heads. Even so swathed in pain she tried to convince herself that he wasn't real that he could not fly. But it didn't work anymore.

Cloud kept hissing, grabbing his upper left arm. He shuffled forward several steps.

'Am I winning? What does Cloud have that I don't? Or does Sephiroth care about him more?'

That voice of Sephiroth's felt like silk even in the pain. Natalie hated it, and she hated that she missed it. 'Why can't you just be dead? And why can't I hate you?'

"Don't deny me." Sephiroth looked to Cloud. "Embrace me."

Cloud roared with wordless rage. He drew his sword as he charged forward.

Natalie clutched the rail with both hands now, she could only watch as the others in front of her stared. 'I refuse to embrace what you want.' She thought. Her hand competed with her heart, gripping the rail instead of running to or from Sephiroth. Either step would take her away from her friends.

The world slowed down around Natalie, with one swipe of the Masamune cut the gangplank between Sephiroth and Cloud. He was very real. And very alive.

The whole gang[plank started turning into a ramp Everyone else on it was shouting in surprise as it canted down far enough for gravity to begin to take hold.

Cloud launched himself in the air to chop overhead into Sephiroth.

With the speed Natalie knew too well, Sephiroth had his own sword up to block.

Natalie kept her grip on the rail as it turned into a slide and the others started falling forward.

Red was calculating a jump. Barret was trying to keep his balance. Tifa and Aerith were already sliding forward down the tilted ramp. Natalie started forward, only her grip on the rail kept her from joining the others.

In the mess, Natalie heard Sephiroth speak to something that ended in "...reunion." Reversing his sword, he pushed Cloud away, to fall after them into the darkness below.

As they all slid farther down, Natalie could not make herself let go of the rail with her other hand. Normal gravity was pulling the others away and down from her.

She looked up at Sephiroth, as he looked down at her from atop the remains of the gangplank. The cries of the others faded beneath her.

"Let go." Sephiroth said. "Come to me." That silken voice had not changed a hair.

Meanwhile the pressure increased on Natalie's head. It was like something was grabbing her by the back of the head and squeezing.

She was caught, her hands gripped the rail as she dangled on the ramp. Hanging onto her mind and body for dear life against his personal attention. Natalie wanted to remember times of them holding hands, peacefully, kindly. But all she could think of was the nightmare that had started with him squeezing her head and starting to pull her hair. The one where he had done unspeakable things before she had awoken.

"No, Sephiroth. Not again. Leave me alone." The last few words issued out of Natalie's mouth as a scream.

"Have we met before?" He smirked at her, mocking her.

The room went still and quiet. Sephiroth stood stock-still and was frozen mouthing his next words.

Natalie felt her brow scrunch in confusion. "What? Sephiroth!" she yelled the last word.

"CAN YOU FEEL THAT?" the voice filled her mind again. Booming across the room as the only sound.

"They grow, yes I can feel it." Ardyn again.

'Madness' Natalie thought of thoser other voices again. She continued to dangle from the rail, and looked at Sephiroth. He was still frozen, that penetrating look in his eyes staring at her.

"Ardyn?" Natalie asked again. "Ardyn, fix this. Get me out of here!" she yelled. No longer caring who heard her. Ardyn, that was his voice. Where was he?

A sound she had heard once before filled her ears, something she could now recall from the tunnel under Sector Seven. Like air filling a tunnel, but in reverse. There could be a better description for it, but it was all Natalie could put together before a new sound came to her.

The engine noises and bubbling that was the background noise of the Drum filler her ears, suddenly loud again. Those other two voices were gone.

"Don't deny me." Sephiroth repeated.

The distance was too far for Natalie to hear that whisper. He must have been using some other means of being heard. He was in her head.

Natalie held on, to the rail, to herself, trying to convince herself that she was only mad, but she still had to hold on to herself. She pushed back by bending her elbows and doing a pull-up, bringing her face to her arm. And bit down on her own hand, she could feel the glove and her skin break under her teeth.

Reflexively, that hand let go. While she focused on the pain, and tried to push back against the pain in her head. She tasted blood as she pulled her eyes away from Sephiroth, sliding down the rail and after the others.

'He doesn't know me?' She thought in confusion. 'No, he mocks me, even as he calls me to him.' Mocking instead of that look he had given her in Nibelheim. It puzzled her, even as she slid further down.

Looking down and ahead, Natalie picked when to jump and follow the others into the darkness. Leaving all the voices behind.

As she looked down to fall well, she had a horrifying thought, 'Did I take control back, or did Sephiroth let me go?'

---

Hojo's laughter died away, his Reunion Hypothesis was off to an amazing start. He twisted a knob on the recording console. Curious about one niggling detail.

Winding back the footage to right before the hyper-compatible test subject, designated 'Marin', fell off the gangplank. He could see the central subject of his hypothesis reaching out to the female. If there was anything left of her when the Reunion was done. Hojo would make sure to find use for her genetic material, one way or another.

He stopped the footage to right before Sephiroth spoke to her, looking for the static in between the frames. And let it play again, but slower.

To his perception, at half speed, the static elapsed for over twenty seconds. Rolling over it again, but at a quarter speed. The static lasted for forty seconds. But stare as he might, Hojo saw only black and white dots make gray in the footage. And the crackling in the blank audio was just as clear.

In the original recording, at the original speed, there was only ten seconds of lost footage.

Hojo rolled back over it again, this time at one tenth the speed. This time the static lasted for nearly two minutes. After the static cleared he could watch his hyper-compatible test subject cry out. At one tenth speed as she slowly bit her own hand before falling away into the darkness.

"Let us see what the hypothesis brings. Then my dear, we shall see what new experiments you will bring." Hojo started laughing again, cackling quietly to himself. As he rewound the footage again. Forgetting that in all the footage he had seen so far, everyone was calling her 'Lee'. Not that he cared, names were not important.

The Work was important.

The laughter died, as he stopped the knob in the middle of the static.

What was gray, was not only a flat plane of nothing. But movement through the static. Rewinding the footage again, he made it even slower and a new obsession appeared. While he searched for what the static, what the ten dead seconds, contained.