Kind of hard to believe, but this story is five years old today. Thank you for your support as I've been growing into this story. A special thank you to those who've been awesome enough to leave me reviews!
Chapter 18 House of Nightmares
Like the ever-present shadows near sunset, the black cloaked figures lurked in the gaps between the houses, their wheezing rasps calling out as the party passed. Yuffie shivered and rubbed her arms when they finally passed the last of the houses and another figure crying out for Sephiroth.
While in good repair, the cobbled road to the mansion was choked with dust and rust-toned, dry pine needles. The early afternoon air was crisp and the sound of cicadas and birdsong filled the peaceful silence. Despite the natural peace, the closer they came to the old mansion, the greater the tension in Zack and Cloud's shoulders. Even fragmented, Cloud's memories of his time there were unpleasant.
Before long, the stone and wrought-iron gates of the manor rose from the forest like the twisted bones of some ancient behemoth. The sunlight gleamed dully on the filthy windows and shimmering spiderwebs choked the porch rails and spaces between the gate's iron bars. Zack shook his head and murmured, "This nice weather is completely opposite of how I feel coming back here."
Cloud silently nodded his agreement. One black cloaked figure wandered aimlessly on the path beyond the mansion that headed to the mako reactor. When they came close it moaned, "The great Sephiroth is near." It released a long moan and continued, "Inside the mansion."
"Guess that answers where he is," Zack muttered.
Barret scoffed, "If ya' wanna take the spook's word for things."
Cloud grimaced, but nodded, conceding the point. "Zack and I hardly have happy memories of this place but if we've got the chance to pin Sephiroth down here, we can end this."
Barret frowned, but nodded his agreement. Another cloaked figure shuffled near the partially open gate, its hands held before it, inches apart as if holding a small, invisible object in its hands. "Click… click...Seph...iroth," it moaned as they passed and Tifa froze.
The blond winced and guiltily faced her. Instead of the dawning horror he expected on her face, he found pained resignation. Cloud rested his left hand on her shoulder and she pulled his hand off to clutch between her own. "You eavesdropped," he theorized looking sadly into her whiskey colored eyes.
She nodded silently, her lower lip slightly thrust out in defiance. Sighing once, he squeezed her fingers in a wordless show of comfort. Shaking herself, she released his hand and stepped away so Cloud and Zack could fully open the gate. On the count of three, the two mako enhanced men threw their weight against the neglected metal gate.
A shower of rust sifted from the hinges and an ear-shattering shriek filled the air, reverberating back and forth across the mountains. Startled birds abandoned their roosts in a tumult of squawks and feathers, an eerie silence fell as the shrieking echoes faded.
"With a gate like that, who needs doorbells?" Yuffie weakly joked, a faint sheen of sweat rising on her face and arms. Her eyes flicked to the dark, creaking building nervously. Steeling himself for the onslaught of memories, Zack turned the handle of the right-side, double door. It rattled and fell apart in his hand, rusty pieces scattering and rolling across the ashy surface of the long untreated wood of the porch. He gaped at the filthy knob remaining in his hand.
"Ye don't know your own strength eh?" Cait Sith joked weakly, evoking a weak snort from the man. Zack chucked the knob in the withered remains of a boxwood shrub off the porch and forced the doors open. The abused hinges moaned like a lost soul and Yuffie squeaked, clinging to Aerith's side as they filed inside.
Pale yellow light filtered from the dirty windows into the open gallery of the front hall. The grimy black walnut of the flooring and stairs only added to the dark demeanor of the vast chamber. The nose searing stench of mold and mildew mingled with the cloying scent of dust. Various prints marred the dusty flooring and Cloud tilted his head, listening to the distant sounds of creatures moving through the house. "Wonderful," he murmured sarcastically.
Barret sighed, "I take it you ain't just worried about a few rats then."
The blond nodded once and then turned his head back and forth, as if listening to something else entirely. He stared intently towards the upper west wing before whipping his head fully to the doorway on their left. The tiny parlor was crowded with a rough wooden desk, its chairs leaking stuffing from the frayed and faded crimson cushions. He crouched in the far corner of the room and carefully pried a yellowed piece of paper from between the shattered floorboards. He slowly unfolded it and scanned the contents, his scowl deepening as he read.
"What is it?" Red XIII asked, the beads in his braids clicking as he tilted his head to the side.
"Hojo and more of his games," Cloud snarled, handing the note off to Zack.
After skimming it, a thoughtful expression crossed the man's face, "Huh, that's weird. There's something familiar about it but I was more worried about getting you out so…"
"Judging by the state of this letter, he was locked up some time after we were taken," Cloud murmured, taking it back and studying the clues.
Barret shook his head regretfully, "I hope the poor soul got released, 'cause it don't look like anyone's been here in ages. If he's still here, he's probably dead."
Cloud didn't respond, he silently pocketed the letter and headed back to the main chamber. Cait Sith groused from the back, "This house is filthy, my poor mog will need a good scrubbing after this!"
While he grumbled, Cloud slipped into the room directly across from the front parlor and quickly re-emerged with a silver megaphone in his hand and a grimace on his face. "I can't help but wonder where these are coming from," he muttered shoving it in his pouch. Before Cait could do more than open his mouth to protest, Cloud explained, "It has more materia slots, but it is considerably weaker than what you already have."
Zack snorted but before he could crack the joke on his lips, five Dorky Faces drifted from the upper level to attack them. Barret's eyes flicked from the pumpkin-headed specters to Yuffie, cringing in anticipation of her shrieks of terror.
The young ninja's mouth dropped and she howled with laughter. Even the monsters paused in their approach, taken aback by the reaction. "They're autumn festival lanterns set on tea cosies!" she giggled, pointing at the monsters. "And look at the pink ribbons on their heads, they're so cute!"
In spite of the serious nature of their location, Aerith nervously tittered in response. The Dorky Faces' smiles turned down to scowls at the slight and they breathed out a sparkling golden gas. Cloud shook his head and frantically wiped at the shimmering powder. The hallway around him shone with an eerie light and his inner-ear ceased working properly. Bobbing and weaving like a drunkard, he desperately tried to focus on the floating enemies. They spun and danced dizzyingly before and around him tauntingly, always just barely out of his reach. His back flared with pain, and he danced away from his attacker, the wound clearing the fog from his mind.
"Are ye back to yourself now lad?" Cait Sith asked warily, tensed to fight him off. Baffled, he looked around to see the others caught in the throes of confusion. Yuffie spun in wild circles, giggling while the others flailed and attacked at random. The gouges and holes in the walls gave testament to their many wild attacks. Rarely, one of their blows would strike one of the Dorky Faces, but the agile enemies had little trouble dodging the clumsy attacks. Aerith's Prism Staff whistled down and struck Zack on the head. The tall man howled in pain and staggered against the wall clutching his skull.
Cloud sliced through an enemy that floated too close and warily watched his friend recover his senses. He didn't dare cut through Tifa, Aerith, Red XIII's confused flailing to explain things but to his relief, Zack shook off the confusion and cut down another Dorky Face. Between the three sober party members and the uncoordinated attacks from the others, the enemies were soon cut down.
Fist still extended from a punch, Tifa blinked when the confusion abruptly ended. The ladies and Red took in the damage around them and then Zack, Cloud, and Cait Sith. Finally taking the free moment to dab at the trickle of blood running down his face Zack muttered, "Well that was horrible. Next time how about we attack first, critique later?"
Yuffie spied the Pinwheel slashes on Cloud's back and her expression went green. "Sorry Cloud," she apologized weakly.
He grunted as he bent down to retrieve the Echo Screen the Dorky Faces dropped, the motion pulling at his already healing scabs. "Let's just focus on getting through this," he murmured in reply. A short, dim hallway off the front hall led to a large dining room dominated by a collapsed and shattered grand piano. Tifa hissed, a frown carving lines in her face at the destruction of such a wonderful instrument. Cloud bypassed the piano and crouched down stroking a section on the floorboards before slipping out the letter and scribbling something on its margins.
The awful battle with the Dorky Faces and the dark, creaking manor weakened what little bravado Yuffie gathered before entering the abandoned house. Alone, the rotting furniture, shredded drapes and scuttling monsters would be annoying but manageable; all combined was too much for the young woman. Her growing fear grew more and more apparent as she clung closer and closer to Tifa and Aerith.
Mindful of her intensifying trembling, Cloud hurried them to raid chests and dropped items on the second floor in between battles with Jerseys, more Dorky Faces, and the random, frightening Ghirofelgos. Yuffie started a low whimper in the back of her throat when the first pendulum legged man descended from the ceiling moaning in tortured agony and it only intensified as they traveled further along. "Maybe zombies are scary," she admitted to Tifa in a shaky whisper.
Cloud paused in one bedroom in the second floor's eastern wing, staring for a long moment at the strange circular block wall in the corner. Shaking himself out of the trance, he slid his gaze to Zack and raised an eyebrow in silent question. He had faint, patchy memories of that wall, but from the other side, and the hideous, orange and brown comforter on the bed stood out uniquely. His friend nodded, confirming the suspicion. Cloud murmured, "The entrance to the basement is in here, but I want to finish raiding this floor before we go down."
"The entrance to the basement is on the second floor?" Cait Sith asked skeptically. "What insane person planned that?"
"Hojo," Zack said flatly.
Cait's ears drooped and he sheepishly murmured, "Ah… yes that does explain things."
There were a few more encounters with the unassuming Dorky Faces, but after their first disastrous battle, they eliminated them as quickly as they could. They crossed to the west wing of the second floor, passing a room with a man-sized safe into a circular sun room burgeoning with healthy green plants. Yuffie hung back in the doorway, her expression a blend of worried and curious.
Red XIII sniffed one of the overgrown bonsai trees while Cloud dug under the benches and emerged with an Enemy Launcher. The leonine sneezed and shook his head remarking, "These plants are real."
Cloud looked up from writing on the old letter and Aerith gasped, "That's not possible!" She reached out and stroked the green leaves of a small Wutain maple. Her eyes widened in wonder and she swiftly checked the rest, confirming Red's declaration.
Cait Sith peered at the edges of the shelves and then the ceiling before humming thoughtfully, "I wonder how they survived? The monsters would hardly water houseplants, and there's no sign of roof leakage or an automated watering system."
Barret shot the mechanical cat a narrow look, "Since when has an electronic fortune teller needed to know about that kinda thing? An' where did your accent go?"
Cait stroked the back of his ears with one of his gloved paws and demurred, "Ah laddie, I canna be talking like this all the time!"
Cloud rolled his eyes and as they left the room to go to the small study holding the safe, he whispered to Tifa, "Perhaps if plants can survive untended, the person in the letter might be alive as well."
She nodded in agreement and then lashed out at a Jersey that was trying to sneak up on her, ripping one of its balance-shaped arms off with a snarl. Yuffie leaped in charging the Throw materia on her Pinwheel, she pelted it with a high-velocity, stuffed Moogle sending the creature swiftly back to the Lifestream. The remaining Jerseys backed off and kept a wary distance, and a Mirage plastered itself to the far wall and pretended to be the mirror it mimicked.
Cait Sith looked from the pathetic toy, stuffing leaking from its split neck and slowly backed away from the girl. Zack whistled, nudged the destroyed moogle with the toe of his boot, and asked, "Did you mean to throw that? Because I could have sworn that materia was for throwing weapons at a monster."
Yuffie rolled her eyes and snorted, "Yes I did that on purpose. The normal way it works is stupid. Why did you think I won all those stuffed animals?"
"Bragging rights?" Barret proposed.
"Because you could?" Zack suggested.
Aerith rolled her eyes and drawled, "Because you like stuffed animals?"
Yuffie tilted her head to the side and hummed, "I sort of concede the last one, but carnival stuffed animals are kind of worthless and usually kind of ugly. Less of a loss than throwing a weapon you won't get back."
Rolling her eyes at the conversation, Tifa tossed the monster limb aside, allowing it to fade away and then watched Cloud crouch to study the large safe.
Barret folded his heavily muscled arms and snorted, "You a safe-cracker now Cloud?"
Cloud shook his head and pulled out the aged piece of paper, shaking it once so the man could see it over his right shoulder. "I've been collecting the combination as we explored the rooms." He stood and stroked a gloved finger on the faint designs along the edges of the safe's door seam.
"So what's the hold up?" Aerith asked curiously, "Do you still need to find some numbers?"
"No, that's not why I'm hesitating," Cloud shook his head and turned back to the safe and spun the knob experimentally, frowning as the digital display flashed swiftly through the numbers.
"Then what is it?" Yuffie asked, rubbing her arms and struggling to keep her trembling down.
"Hojo wrote this letter," Cloud explained, "I recognize his computer-like handwriting."
"Any person deemed an annoyance by that man bears the possibility of becoming an ally," Red continued, bobbing his head in understanding.
Tifa frowned, cupped her chin thoughtfully, and mused, "Hojo is arrogant though, why would he keep someone that annoys him around? Much less give clues for anyone to find them?"
Zack's expression darkened as he explained, "He must have done something to whoever it is, he's crazy possessive about his experiments. As for giving out clues… It's a trap, isn't it?"
Cloud nodded giving the markings on the edges one last stroke. "This safe has something big in it, there are spatial expansion symbols on it. Knowing Hojo, whatever is in there is bound to be nasty."
"Right," Cait Sith acknowledged with a salute. Cloud waited for everyone to spread in position around the room before spinning the dial carefully. He turned the handle and swiftly jumped back. The safe door exploded open just after he leaped away and the monster rapidly started filling the room.
"Pull back!" Barret bellowed, tugging on a paralyzed Yuffie's arm and dragging her down the hall. Cloud and Zack took up the rear, the monster's angry bellow following them down to the lower level of the mansion. The doorframe exploded into splinters when the creature burst through the small opening and stomped past the shards. Bypassing the stairs, the mako enhanced pair leaped off the second storey balcony. The monster shattered the floorboards of the main foyer when it landed behind them.
Using the distraction of Tifa's ice spell, the pair took the chance to turn and face their foe. Split straight down the middle, the twelve foot tall monster looked like two creatures merged together. Its scaly left half was a shimmering violet shading to deep blue and then poisonous green at its clawed hand and foot. Its right side was covered in writhing crimson tentacles a pair of thicker ones shading to yellow served as an arm and a leg.
Fanning out to flank the monster Red identified as "Lost Number" they peppered the beast with magic attacks and physical blows. Red roared in pain as lightning from the creature's counterattack danced up and down his spine. Aerith launched an Aqualung attack, the massive corrosive bubbles engulfing it and unleashing the stench of burning flesh. Wailing in pain, Lost Number's green arm flailed out, punching towards Yuffie.
Unbalanced from her last leaping attack, the girl paled and flinched, expecting to be smashed through the nearby stair railing. Cloud's Cover materia activated and he appeared in a flash of magenta, his sturdier form absorbing most of the blow, though the wooden rails squealed in protest after the collision.
Red XIII rocked the foundations of the house when he sent a quake spell against the beast. Lost Number flinched and then the scaled half of it faded away, leaving the whole monster crimson and tentacled. It shrugged off Cloud's bolt spell like a dog shaking off water. The next Aqualung attack Zack sent barely caused a flinch. Frowning, Yuffie dove in through the tentacles and sliced through some on its flank with her Pinwheel. The creature squealed in pain, a few of its tentacles falling to the dusty floorboards writhing.
"Physical attacks still work!" she cried, barely avoiding an electrical spell sent her way in retaliation.
"That's just what I wanted to hear," Tifa growled, a toothy smile splitting her face. The fiery light of her limit break danced around her as she dashed forwards and with the inhuman strength of Meteodrive grabbed the tall monster and suplexed it into the foyer floor. Before the stunned beast could pry itself free, she followed up with a Waterkick, Somersault, and Beat Rush. Lost Number thrashed under the onslaught and with a final drawn out wail it dissolved into crimson sparkles.
A blue, leather-bound book thunked to the floor in the shocking, sudden silence. Clutching his ribs from the blow he took, Cloud staggered forward and picked up the book. "Cosmo Memory," he read off the shining silver embossing. "It looks like this is for you Red."
Red XIII stepped out of the soothing glimmer of Aerith's healing spell to study the item. "I sense a connection, indeed. Although, I also sense I am as of yet, unable to tap into whatever it contains."
Cloud nodded and slipped the item into his pouch and then pulled out Ethers and Potions to deal with the group's battle fatigue and wounds.
"Well that was exciting," Zack snorted, scrubbing at a singed mark on his Butterfly Edge with his thumb. "Great work at the end there Tifa."
Yuffie nodded her head vigorously and cheered, "Yeah, it is always awesome to see you slam down a monster that's so much bigger than you. Go girl power!" Aerith and Tifa giggled and accepted her high fives.
Barret rolled his eyes and huffed, "Yeah, yeah. Let's get this over with. The spooks here are startin' to freak me out too."
Yuffie's jubilance instantly dimmed with the reminder of her surroundings. Aerith glared at him and linked arms with the young woman as they once more ascended the stairs. Cloud and Zack kicked aside the fragments of the shattered door frame and slipped into the severely damaged room. A pair of Turbo Ethers and a Mirror on the floor bore testament of what happened to the monsters remaining in the room when Lost Number emerged from the safe. Cloud scooped up the items and gil along with a crimson orb.
He spun it in his fingers a moment, gazing into the pulsing red depths and then wordlessly extended it to Zack. The man studied the summon for a second and asked, "You sure you don't want it?" Cloud shook his head, Zack shrugged and slipped the sphere into an empty materia slot before he crouched down and retrieved a small golden key from the safe.
He rose from his crouch, spinning the key gently between his fingers his brow furrowed. "I recognize this now," he murmured, meeting the curious looks of the rest of the party. "There's a guy… in the basement, sleeping in a coffin."
"A coffin?" Yuffie asked shrilly. "There's a vampire in here?"
"Don't worry kid," Barret huffed, slapping her on the back and nearly knocking her over. "There was plenty of garlic in the soup we had at lunch, you should be fine even if there is a vampire."
"But I brushed my teeth!" she wailed raising her clenched fists to her chin, blocking her neck with her wrists.
"Ah, too bad then," he joked, scrubbing her head and mussing her hair. "Guess you better hope he goes for one of us first." Yuffie whimpered, her gray eyes watering.
"Barret!" Aerith snapped, shooting the man a poisonous glare.
"Aw man," he muttered, scratching his head and then pulling the girl into a bear hug. "Ya' know I'm just teasin' girl. There ain't no such thing as vampires." He barely bit back admitting the existence of vampire bats and patted the girl's back comfortingly.
In a voice so low, only Cloud and Red XIII could hear, Zack muttered, "I'd be more comforted if he hadn't said the same thing about ghosts back in Cosmo Canyon." He slapped the key in Cloud's palm and then headed for the basement's secret entrance.
By this point, the reprieve from Lost Number's attack finally wore off, and a quartet of Dorky Faces launched themselves from the murky rafters. Already keyed up from the boss battle and anticipating revisiting the basement he'd been tortured in for four years, Zack snarled and activated his new summon.
The first image to appear from the summon was a huge full moon, partially obscured by wispy clouds. Then much like with Tifa's Ramuh, a stone mountain appeared, though instead of a stave-wielding elder at its peak, a huge armored man on a six-legged horse galloped down the spire, his massive sword gleaming. He rushed the Dorky Faces, his sword slicing through them, his blade leaving an electric blue afterimage. Then, for some inexplicable reason, the attack repeated twice from different angles like an overdone action scene from a low-budget Wutai martial arts movie.
The monsters, each neatly bisected at an angle slid partially from their other half before fading into the lifestream after the summon vanished. Zack stared down at the crimson orb in his Silver Armlet and then to Cloud who calmly scooped up the leavings and said, "You know, I keep thinking we've reached the point of a summon being over the top." He shook his head and muttered, "It will be hard to top that."
Cloud paused and then shook his head muttering, "You shouldn't have said that."
Tilting his head back and sighing at the ceiling Zack agreed, "Yeah. I just jinxed us."
"I thought it was cool," Yuffie pouted, bouncing on a creaky board in the bedroom with the ugly comforter. "So how do we get to the basement from here?"
Instead of verbally responding, Zack felt along the curved, gray stone wall, depressing a slightly abnormal rock. Distant gears heaved and creaked, wrenching a portion of the wall out of the way and revealing the shaft down the stonework silo. Daggers of sunlight pierced the moist gloom from cracks in the mortar. A thick pair of chains hung from the backside of the door and whatever mechanism opened it. A narrow wooden ramp spiraled along the outer edge down into the depths of the mansion. Black and green patches of moss and mold covered the ramp like poisonous lesions and several of the slats on the ramp were missing.
"This doesn't appear to be structurally sound," Cait Sith remarked shaking his head. "Certainly not up to any building codes I'm aware of."
"The Professor experiments on people," Barret growled, rolling his eyes at the feline. "I doubt he cares if he pisses off some safety contractors."
"Ah," Cait sighed, shaking his head mournfully. "You are right yet again. I suppose it is wishful thinking of me to expect everyone to worry about the health and safety of others."
Shaking his head at the strange conversation topic, Cloud gingerly stepped on the first board, wincing at the pained shriek of the wood. He gave a slight bounce, keeping his other foot firmly planted in the room and then tilted his head in consideration. "Despite appearances, it isn't too bad. It actually feels a little sounder than that roller coaster ramp back in Corel. The only thing I think we ought to be wary of is how slick it is."
Tifa and Aerith exchanged uncomfortable looks at the reminder of Cloud on the disintegrating roller coaster track and then peered down the silo. Tifa gnawed the corner of her left thumb's nail and murmured, "We're all pretty agile, I think even if we were to have a fall, we should be alright. You can probably wedge your staff in something to break your fall, Yuffie, Red XIII, and I are pretty acrobatic…"
Aerith nodded in agreement, "Cloud and Zack both fell from the upper plate and through the roof of my church so they would be okay."
"An' what about Cait and I?" Barret growled, folding his arms.
Zack clapped his hand on the man's back and said cheerfully, "We've got plenty of healing materia and items, you'll be fine." Cackling, the former SOLDIER dashed down the ramp, the indignant gunman close behind him.
Cloud shook his head and laughed, "Zack always was good at getting people's minds off of negative things." He led the others down the spiraling ramp the profanity from below helpfully covering the distressed creaks and moans of the wood. When they finally reached below ground and the reach of the shafts of sunlight, only an ethereal violet light from below lit the way. The ramp ended in a grimy metal ladder.
The breathless pair waited for them at the base of the ladder, Zack from laughing and Barret from cursing at the man. Cait Sith grunted and huffed as he laboriously clambered down the ladder, Red XIII gracefully leaped down past him.
"I thought you didn't like using ladders?" Zack asked, wiping a tear of mirth from the corner of his eye.
"I don't," Cait Sith grunted and then yelped as he slipped and fell the last three rungs with a muffled thud. "But if I'm gonna' keep travelling with you I'm bound to come on places where I use a ladder or get left behind. Might as well practice," he muttered, clambering back onto the Mog's head and straightening his crown.
Cloud peered down the stone tunnel, his gaze slightly distant and murmured, "That cloaked person was right, Sephiroth is here." He pulled the key from his pocket and said, "Let's try to recruit this Turk first, we'll need all the help we can get if we're going to face off against the general."
Yuffie shivered, rubbing her arms nervously in the damp chill of the passageway. The gravel beneath their feet crunched in an irregular pattern, the noise echoing in the long tunnel. The dry snap beneath Aerith's feet startled a yelp from the woman. She looked down at the crushed femur by her foot, a skeleton shrouded in scraps of fabric sprawled against the wall, a pair of rusty chains dangled from the wall above it. She shrieked and clung to Zack's arm, burying her face against his chest.
The high-pitched scream seemed to echo and reverberate, raising in pitch as it prolonged. Cloud looked up to the dark ceiling, his hand drifting to the handle of his blade. "Those aren't echoes… Get ready!" he cried as the whooshing of leathery wings joined the shrieks of Black Bats. Zack struggled to attack the flying rodents while still comforting the woman clinging to his chest. He couldn't keep them all away though, and when one of the shrieking bats tangled in her chestnut locks, her terror turned to rage.
Heedless of the strands of hair she ripped from her scalp, she tore the creature from her hair and flung it away. With a motion that grew all too easy with her time in Cosmo Canyon, she summoned Shiva and the blue-skinned woman coated the tunnel in a shimmering layer of ice. The flash-frozen bats thudded and shattered on the icy stone. Smirking, she exchanged a high-five with the woman before she faded away.
"Wha? Why?" Zack stammered looking desperately towards Cloud. "When did that happen? Since when could she do that?"
The Ancient shot a smug look at Tifa and Yuffie but didn't reply. Cloud sighed and gingerly sifted through the bats for the dropped gil and Vampire Fangs. "That wasn't so bad," Yuffie remarked in a quavering voice.
Zack and Cloud winced and shook their heads, the taller man muttering about "jinxes" under his breath. The ice slowly melted around them as they traveled further down the tunnel. A few more bats attacked them along the way, but this time Aerith smacked them down with her weapon or magic materia rather than summoning Shiva. They were making steady progress when Cloud stuttered to a halt, peering at an extra dark patch on the wall. Narrowing his eyes, he walked to the patch and knocked softly. The dull thunk of flesh on thick metal hinted at the door shrouded in thick, black mold. Red XIII turned and raised his tail for light while Cloud dug through the sludgy muck for the keyhole. The extra light revealed demonic designs on the filthy surface. Yuffie whimpered, flinching at the pained screech of the lock and the moan of the opening door.
Grumbling, Cloud brushed the grit from the doorway out of his blond locks and stepped into the stone chamber. The octogonal chamber was dim, the walls less abundantly coated in the violet fungus from the tunnel. Disintegrating candlestands choked with ancient runnels of wax rested against the walls among fragments of marble facing and the shattered remnants of some ancient statue. Cloud peered through the dim, dusty gloom into the ancient chapel.
As his vision adjusted to the lack of light, he realized he was wrong, this wasn't a chapel, it was a tomb. Five open coffins were arrayed around the chamber, only the central one was closed. Along the back wall rested dozens of grinning skulls among scattered piles of bones. Their vision adjusting faster than the others, Cloud, Zack, and Red XIII looked from the grouping of coffins and bones to Yuffie with concern.
It was obvious when Yuffie spotted the coffins, she whimpered and her Pinwheel rattled in her hands. "Why are we even in here? Don't you see those coffins?" Yuffie cried in a hysterical whine. Internally, Cloud was relieved her eyes weren't adjusted enough to see all the bones.
"What if there's a vampire or a zombie in here?" she cried grabbing Cloud's elbow and shaking it.
Cloud looked down at the only closed coffin, a man's low voice within murmured, "Who dares...to wake me from my nightmares?" The last was spoken louder and then the lid flew off, crashing into the nearby coffin. The bones inside rattled and a fine haze of dust sifted from a cracked edge. "Who is it?!" He shouted sitting up and glaring at them with glowing crimson eyes. A matching red cape draped from his shoulders. His skin was ghostly pale in the faint luminescence, the contrast all the sharper against the black of his leather clothing and hair.
Yuffie screamed and scrambled from the room, knocking Zack off his feet in the process. Her wails and the pounding of her feet dopplered as she dashed all the way up the spiral staircase. Aerith bit her lip and turned to go after her, Barret shook his head and muttered, "I'll go, you keep these yahoos in line." He stomped out of the tomb shaking his head and calling out, "Get yer skinny butt back down here missy! You know it's too dangerous to wander 'round here alone!" Shaking his head, Red XIII dashed after him as back-up.
The strange man narrowed his eyes at them and murmured, "I don't know who you are, but you must leave."
Zack grunted as Cloud helped him back to his feet and sniffed at the man, "That's some gratitude, considering we 'woke you from your nightmare' and all."
The man snorted and shook his head, his long raven locks flaring out, "Hmph, nightmares… My long sleep, has it given me enough time to atone?"
"Atone from what?" Aerith asked, peering from around Cloud's shoulders.
His crimson eyes flickered to her and for the slightest moment widened, startled. His face softened and he opened his mouth, one gloved hand twitching and slightly rising before he stiffened, hissing, "I have nothing to say to strangers. Get out. This mansion will only bring you nightmares."
"You got that right," Cloud muttered, averting his gaze.
A flicker of interest gleamed in the man's eyes, "You aren't just saying that. You know something."
Cloud looked down at the dust choked designs on the floor, his expression grim. Zack shook his head and answered, "It's like you said, this place started the nightmare."
"Except you can wake up to get out of nightmares," Tifa whispered, her fists clenching. She refused to flinch when the eerie crimson eyes flickered her way but breathed a tiny sigh of relief when he focused back on Cloud.
The blond shook his head and explained, "It may have started in the Nibel reactor, but after reading the books in this mansion Sephiroth lost his mind…"
The wood of the man's resting place gave a squeal of protest before he exclaimed, "Sephiroth?"
Zack and Aerith exclaimed, "You know Sephiroth?" Cloud's attention, however, was drawn to the gleaming brass claws on the man's left hand and the furrows they left in the side of his coffin. The caped man leaped in the air, flipping once to perch on the head of the coffin. The bolts holding the foot to the floor groaned in protest.
"Tell me your side first," he insisted as his thick hair and ragged crimson cape settled.
Cloud shot Zack a glance, one eyebrow raised in invitation. Zack shook his head, "Go ahead and tell it, I'll fill in if you leave any holes."
Cloud huffed, the corner of his mouth drawing down in annoyance but he complied, telling about the mission to Nibelheim, the reactor, and Sephiroth's subsequent psychological break. When he spoke about the goings on in the mansion, Barret and Red guided a sulky, but slightly calmer Yuffie back into the room. She watched the man on the coffin warily but stood quietly by Tifa and Aerith.
Zack took up the tale, filling in with conversations the pair of Firsts exchanged in the reactor and mansion that Cloud was not present for. Hearing about Sephiroth's fall seemed to upset to the man, though he shot Cloud a look of grudging respect when he learned how the blond had defeated the powerful general.
"...And then we came here," Zack finished.
The crimson cloaked man stroked his chin with his leather gloved right hand and summarized, "... so Sephiroth learned the dark truth of his creation and the Jenova project five years ago before disappearing… When he reappeared he enacted another slaughter and is seeking this… 'promised land'... to what end though?" he mused the last quietly.
"That's our side," Cait Sith chimed. "So what do you know about him?"
The stranger shook his head, "I can say nothing."
"Now wait a damn minute!" Barret protested shaking his fist at the pale man. "That ain't fair."
The cloaked man gracefully stepped into the padded confines of the coffin and murmured, "Your tale has increased the weight of my sins. Your sorrows shall add to my nightmares." He reclined in the coffin and said, "Now… please leave." Grabbing an inner handle on the coffin, he slid the lid back into place.
Yuffie blinked, and in a flat voice drawled, "Wow… I'm suddenly not afraid anymore."
Scowling, Zack gripped the top of the box and heaved it aside. When the lid slid away, the strange man sat up and huffed, "You're still here?"
Aerith frowned, marched up to the coffin, and scowled down at him with her fists on her hips. "You're being incredibly rude!" she scolded, her green eyes flashing and meeting his abnormal red without flinching. "We told you our story, the least you can do is tell us your name and who you are!"
He held her gaze steadily for half a moment, and then averted his eyes and huffed, "My name is Vincent Valentine. I was with the Shinra Manufacturing Department in Administrative Research-sometimes affectionately called the Turks."
When he mentioned the name of his department, Cait Sith drew back in surprise and murmured, "I haven't heard it called that in quite a long time."
Cloud peered down at him in interest, but Tifa's next remark drew his attention from the oddity. "Wait, I find it hard to believe you're a Turk with that outfit."
Vincent raised his right knee and rested his right arm across it while correcting, "Formerly of the Turks. I have no association with Shinra now." He shook his head and then peered more closely at Zack and Cloud's SOLDIER First uniforms. "Considering your story, you were also with Shinra. No one goes through the SOLDIER program without contact with the Science Department. Tell me, do you know Lucrecia?"
Cloud grimaced, his route to becoming mako enhanced was hardly the normal path. Zack frowned, pondering the question but it didn't seem like he recognized the name. He finally shook his head, "I don't think I've heard that name in the science department. Who is Lucrecia?"
Vincent sighed, his chin lowering slightly, "Lucrecia was the woman who gave birth to Sephiroth."
Red XIII chimed in, "I thought Jenova was Sephiroth's mother. At least that is the claim he made to our associates." He bobbed his head to indicate Cloud and Zack.
The former Turk's eyes narrowed, giving the feline a considering look before explaining, "While that isn't completely wrong, and in some scientific aspects is accurate; it is not the complete truth." He sighed tilting his head back and contemplating the chamber's darkness-obscured, vaulted ceiling. "He was born from a beautiful woman, Lucrecia. She was Professor Gast's assistant on the Jenova Project. Beautiful Lucrecia..."
Cloud fought a wince at the thread of wistful loss in the man's voice as he continued speaking, almost as if he'd forgotten he had an audience. Vincent shook his head and narrowed his eyes as he hissed, "By the time I learned about what had been done, it was too late to stop the experiment. I couldn't stop her…"
Zack's eyes widened, this story sounded too much like the tragic history of Sephiroth's closest friends Genesis and Angeal. He exchanged a horrified glance with Cloud, his violet eyes silently pleading that he was imagining the connection. Cloud slowly shook his head, he couldn't deny the parallels.
"I will forever carry the weight of that sin, my inability to convince her to stop doomed the woman I loved and respected the most to such suffering..." Vincent finished, shaking his head and closing the coffin once more. Tifa looked from the coffin to Cloud and tilted her head towards the man's hiding place.
Cloud shook his head and turned away, "Leave him to his mourning, we've got Sephiroth to catch and I want to leave this place as soon as possible."
"I'm with you there," Yuffie agreed, shuffling out of the crypt and into the lighter passage. "You wouldn't believe the creepy thing we ran into on our way back." She shuddered, pulling closer to Tifa.
"Did it have two heads?" Zack asked in a flat voice from behind her.
"Ugh, yes. It also had the creepiest of grins on its faces," Yuffie shuddered, rubbing her upper arms. "It came down the tunnel, shuffling and moaning like someone in pain." She continued, speaking earnestly to Aerith. The sound of shuffling feet and a low pained moan echoed from behind them. Yuffie nodded her head and raised one index finger and cried, "Just like that!"
Zack sighed, his sword edge chiming in counter harmony with Cloud's as they drew their Butterfly edges, "I'd kind of hoped I was imagining things."
Yin Yang was a pitiful sight. Its gray flesh stretched over the elongated limbs and its torso was extra wide to accommodate the two heads. Its heads flopped on their necks like the muscles weren't strong enough to support them. Their deformed faces looked like they were a child's work of clay. Its four misshapen eyes were bloodshot and watering, the disfigured lids unable to properly close. Pained moans emerged from twin mouths, their teeth jutted out at unnatural angles and long lines of drool trickled down its naked torso.
Aerith covered her mouth, her green eyes glistening with tears of sympathy and horror.
"I'm thinkin'," Cait Sith murmured in a low voice. "Killin' this thing is an act of mercy."
Cloud nodded grimly and dashed in at a low angle, Zack following at high. While relatively resilient, it wasn't nearly as powerful as the Lost Number and after a few powerful attacks it succumbed to its wounds.
Tifa sighed and slowly relaxed her shoulders as the pained moans finally ceased. She shuddered and remarked, "That was horrible. I hope we can avoid more of those."
Barret nodded his emphatic agreement and they followed Zack and Cloud deeper into the underground complex. By this point in their adventure they had traveled a fair amount of time beneath the surface whether in secret tunnels, mines or caves. Unlike most of those locations, the air here wasn't permeated with the scent of damp and earth, but rather the stale reek of old sewage, chemicals, and rot. In the dark passage they passed several unlit hallways echoing with the distant shrieks of Black Bats and the shuffle-moan of Yin Yangs.
As they passed yet another enshrouded fork, Red XIII murmured, "This is a sizable facility. I imagine we are well under the mountain by this point."
Cait Sith bobbed his head and mused, "Indeed, this must have taken considerable time and money to build and conceal."
"I know you're going off your memories," Aerith began in a quavering voice, "But how will we ever find Sephiroth in a place this big?"
Spying the faint glimmer of light in the doorway of the mansion library, Zack muttered, "I don't think he'll make it too hard for us."
With a few more strides, he led them into the chamber. Gold light from lamps, the smell of old books, and mildew filled the stuffy air of the large room. The south wall was dominated by two huge cylindrical tanks, the glass stained by the faint, greenish luminescence of long mako exposure.
As if pulled by some strange force, Cloud approached the closest tank and lightly stroked the smooth glass over a small phrase etched on the inside. "I don't remember carving this, but I must have been pretty coherent to manage etching it backwards."
Zack grimaced, looking at his own past prison and the multiple attempts to do the same on the far side of the cylinder. Sometimes only part was backwards, others had letters transposed incorrectly. Cloud may have been coherent enough to write his message, but he hadn't been aware enough to remark on how long it took Zack to finally scratch out his reply. He laughed weakly, "Yeah, that… that was something alright…"
Cloud led them around the massive table piled with science notes and stained with splashes of a dark liquid that none of them desired to dwell on. Piles of books teetered in haphazard piles along the bases of the heavy wooden shelves. The sour stench of mildew arose from one pile directly under a slow drip, the books at the top and base dissolving into rotted mush. Cloud turned down the main corridor of the library and froze. Sephiroth stood on the other end of the shelf-formed passage. "Sephiroth!" Cloud cried, pulling the attention of the others from poking at random books.
The golden lamplight gleamed in his silver hair as the man tilted his head back and ran one hand along a wooden shelf. "Being here brings back memories," he murmured and then flicked his catlike eyes towards Cloud. In a louder voice he asked, "Are you going to participate in the Reunion?"
Cloud shook his head, "I keep hearing about this 'Reunion' thing, first Hojo, then those strange people outside, and now you. I don't even know what this Reunion is for!"
Beside him, Zack nodded emphatically and chimed in, "Besides, it is kind of rude to butt in on someone else's party."
Sephiroth's eyes flicked to Zack with a faint glare and then to the whimpering Yuffie behind them with disgust before answering, "Jenova will be at the Reunion. Jenova will join the Reunion, becoming a calamity from the skies."
"Jenova a calamity from the skies?" Tifa repeated, her voice tinged with confusion.
"That don't sound like an Ancient," Barret remarked shaking his head.
Sephiroth narrowed his eyes and glared at the man and then hissed, "...I see. I don't think you have the right to participate."
Zack tilted his head to the side and added, "That one guy said Jenova wasn't even your mom, a lady named Lucrecia is. Maybe you're not part of this Reunion either."
Sephiroth glared at Zack, whipped out a green materia and pitched it at high-speed into Zack's stomach. While the young man wheezed, Sephiroth floated into the air, flipped and then flew over them while announcing, "I will go north, past Mount Nibel. If you wish to know the truth, then follow."
Yuffie shrieked when the man flew over and covered her head with her arms. Once he was gone she whimpered, "That guy is crazy! I hope you don't plan on going to any Reunion he's throwing!"
Cloud shook his head and stooped to retrieve the materia. He triggered his Sense materia and then hummed at the new Destruct orb before slipping it into his pouch.
"Reunions and Calamities from the skies," Zack mused, rubbing his sore stomach. "Sephiroth sure has changed."
Cloud huffed in amusement and then turned to leave the library. Cait Sith piped up, "Oi, aren't we going ta' search any further?"
Cloud flicked his blue eyes to the distant circular study at the end of the hallway and the massive wooden desk piled high with folders and papers. He shook his head and spat, "Reading Hojo's twisted ramblings on what he did to us is one of the last things I want to do."
Barret grimaced and shook his head, "Ugh, yeah. I ain't interested anymore either."
They carefully retraced their steps through the underground complex occasionally facing off against the braver monsters. A few yards away from the ladder out, Vincent called out, "Wait!" He leaped into sight, floating back to the ground with unearthly grace. His long black hair fanned out around his shoulders in a sable curtain.
Tifa narrowed her eyes at the action and hissed to Aerith, "Is it just me, or did that look kind of like…"
"Like Sephiroth?" the young woman whispered back. "No, I see it too. If you factor in what he said about Sephiroth's mom…"
Summoned by the siren song of gossip, Yuffie joined their huddle and murmured, "What are we talking about?"
While Tifa explained her theory to Yuffie, the tall man glided forward and asked, "If I go with you, will I meet Hojo?" He snarled the last name, his right hand drifting towards a large gun holstered on his hip.
Cloud shrugged and tilted his head, "I can't make any promises, but we're after Sephiroth and despite our wishes we've run into him a few times." The blond grimaced.
Zack snorted and jerked his thumb at Cloud, "In fact he went to great length to send a message to his phone like some kind of stalker."
The cloaked man turned away and looked down at his gleaming, metal claws. "Lucrecia…" he sighed in a low voice.
"If nothing else, he's certainly in love with her," Tifa hummed in an aside to the other women.
Vincent whirled back around, his crimson eyes blazing with purpose and declared, "Alright, I've decided to go with you."
"Well ain't that a change in attitude," Barret snorted shaking his head.
"As a former Turk, I have skills that will be useful in your quest," Vincent said, stalking forward, the ragged edges of his crimson cape fluttering above the ground. "All I ask, is a chance to take my revenge on Hojo."
Zack and Cloud exchanged a meaningful look, and then Zack admitted, "Several of us have a grudge against that old rat so we can't promise you a killing blow."
The cloaked man whipped out his Quicksilver handgun, aimed it toward Zack and shot a Black Bat out of the air before it could dive bomb him and said, "It matters less who strikes the last blow than that the blow is struck. The man's end would be a balm to my soul."
Zack gaped at the dissolving bat and stammered, "Thanks." Then he quirked an eyebrow at Cait Sith and snorted, "Lucky color is red eh?"
Cait flashed a toothy grin and tipped his crown with a laugh. Cloud examined the man's gun and then dug around in his pouch. He pulled out the yellow Destruct materia and slotted it into the Peacemaker before extending it grip-first to Vincent. "This should prove useful," he mused.
Barret's eyes bulged and he cried, "Where the hell did that come from?"
Cloud shrugged and waited while Vincent inspected the new gun, testing the grip and heft, "I found it in a chest in Kalm."
"You've been carryin' it around that long?" Cait Sith gasped.
Cloud shrugged, accepted Vincent's old Quicksilver, and slipped it into his pouch. "I had a feeling there would be a use for it later."
"But Barret's the only one of us who uses a gun and he doesn't use that kind!" Aerith protested, shaking her head.
Zack snorted, recovered from the brief shock. "Ah Cloud can use a gun just fine. I hear he was in the top of his class in marksmanship," he bragged, slinging an arm around Cloud's shoulders and beaming down at him. Vincent looked the blond up and down thoughtfully.
"Alright that's enough," Cloud huffed quietly, his cheeks slightly pink and then louder to the whole party said, "We'll rest the night at the inn and in the morning we'll head north after Sephiroth. Unfortunately, the easiest route through the mountains also passes through the access roads to the reactor."
Zack grimaced and muttered, "Wonderful just one more stop down memory lane eh?"
Cloud sighed, nodding in agreement.
"Look on the bright side," Tifa advised, "If the road into town is any indication, the bridge to the reactor might actually stay up this time."
Aerith groaned and covered her face, "I hope you didn't just curse us."
A/N-holy cow this was a long chapter (thus the reason for two parts). In checking out the actual dialog for this section I've come to the conclusion that the errors go far beyond just Aerith's infamous "This guy are sick". Vincent's speech is sooo awkward. Hopefully my changes did his character some justice. Would you guys have hated me if I'd made the title of this chapter a joke about pick-up lines and lost numbers? XD