By: Mags

Morrigan emitted an audible gasp and the room remained deathly silent for several minutes while Cole, who had just revealed himself to be Vincent Valentine is disguise, let the shock of his news sink in. After another few minutes Morrigan finally regained his powers of speech.

"That’s impossible! You’d have to be…" Morrigan stammered, trying to calculate the numbers.

"Over 350 years old?" Vincent offered.

"Uh…" Morrigan thought aloud, "Yeah, actually! No one can live that long, so what could possibly make you think you can?" Morrigan spat.

"I assure you that my claim is both true and accurate. I am approximately 364 years old," Vincent continued on smoothly.

"Do you have any proof to back up such an outrageous claim?" Karen challenged, confident that there could be no possible proof because what he was claiming was impossible.

"As a matter of fact I do," Vincent responded, turning his attention to Karen.

Vincent made eye contact with her and she found his stare to be so intense that she had to break eye contact. She had never been so close to someone with such a commanding presence about them. She was duly impressed, but that didn’t mean she was going to take anything he said for a gospel.

"Then would you please show us then?" Karen requested, giving Vincent a steely glare.

"Uh…" Vincent stammered, for the first time looking uncomfortable. He had not expected the conversation to take a turn in this direction. He was quite uncomfortable even talking about his incredible longevity, and was even more uncomfortable talking about the causes of it. He had never even revealed to his friends when they were alive why they aged and he hadn’t. Even Red did not know the whole truth.

Vincent sighed. He was in deeper then he had ever expected to be. His desire to convince Morrigan of his true identity had gotten the better of him and he was now paying the consequences. It wasn’t going to be half as hard revealing it to Morrigan and Karen as it would be to Red because he had kept it from him for so long.

"Well let’s see this evidence," Karen insisted.

Vincent knew that he had to. There was no getting out of this one. Without a word he rolled up the white doctor’s sleeve on his left arm to reveal a large black glove that terminated right about his elbow.

"This is partially the result of the experiments that your genius scientist Hojo conducted on me," Vincent said dryly, uttering Hojo’s name with a mix of fear and disgust.

Morrigan watched with keen interest as Vincent began to peel off the glove that covered the greater part of his arm, only to find that what it covered made him turn away in disgust.

Karen let out a whisper of a gasp and Red’s jaw dropped. Morrigan turned away before he vomited.

What stood bare and exposed before them was not an arm at all. Or rather, it was not a human arm even though it had the basic internal structure of one. The most blatantly obvious difference being that most people’s arms do not have a dark green tint to them and pulsating blue and purple veins coursing through them. The entire arm seemed to be attempting to move on it’s own accord. Every now and then a different area of the arm would attempt to divide itself from its host body similar to the way an amoeba stretches and contracts its body to move, forming small tentacles that would poke about curiously.

"What the hell is that?" Karen cried out.

"It can’t be…" Red whispered, stunned by the surprising turn of events.

"Yes, my friend. I’m afraid that this is a piece of…" Vincent began.

"JENOVA?" Red roared.

"Red, please, I…" Vincent stammered.

"You mean that you had this the whole time and you never told me?" Red demanded.

"Red, I… I’m sorry," Vincent’s voice dropped down low to a near whisper as he hung his head.

"To even think that you would keep such a thing from me," Red began ranting. "All this time," he shouted, "All this time and all you told me were that ‘it was what Hojo had done to you’, but never did you even mention… THAT!"

"Red…"

"I thought that we were friends, Vincent. You were the only human friend I had left after I was driven out of Cosmo Canyon. You were the only human that I didn’t want to eviscerate! How can I possibly trust you knowing what you’ve kept from me?"

"Please Red, you know you can trust me…"
"Can I? Can I really, Vincent? Tell me, how did you expect me to act? Did you think that I would never find out? Did you expect to be able to hide this your entire life?"

Morrigan flinched and turned his head away. Red was furious, that much he knew. He wasn’t quite sure of the details of the argument but he did know enough to realize that it would be hazardous to his health were he to intervene. He instead opted to sit back and let Red’s temper wear itself out.

Half an hour later he was still waiting.

"Vincent Valentine, I do not want to speak to you ever again!" Red yelled at Vincent.

Vincent had long ago stopped trying to get a word in edgewise.

"Furthermore, if I ever catch you around here again I will…" Red continued ranting.

Suddenly, Karen shot up out of her seat and with a sharp, piercing yell, captured the attention of everyone in the room, stopping Red in mid-syllable.

"I can’t take this anymore!" she screamed. "Red, you are acting like an immature child! I don’t care what the hell happened to you in the past or what you believe to have happened, but if you were anything like you are now then it’s no wonder that you got kicked out by the other citizens!"
Red just stared, maw gaping. He was clearly shocked by Karen’s audacity.

"Whatever happened to you in the past is done, got it? What’s important is what is going on now, whatever it is that you believe to be occurring."

"Now see here!" Red demanded, regaining his senses.

"No, you see here!" Karen shot back, silencing him before he had another moment to react. "Whatever your problem is with Cole, or Valentine or whomever he claims to be, is between you and him. I do not want to sit here and listen you bitch about it! Also, you have to realize that some people have things that they want to keep to themselves and do not deem necessarily to tell to anyone!"

Karen took a deep breath and exhaled quickly. Her piece said, she retreated back into the corner, her face bright red from the blood rush.

Red just mumbled something under his breath, but said nothing further.

Finally, it was Morrigan who broke the silence.

"Are you guys done yet?" he asked tentatively.

"Quite," Red grumbled.

"Good, then what do you say that we let Vincent fill us in on the rest of the background story and then hightail it out of here before something else happens. This place is giving me the creeps!"

He took a few quick looks around him and then back at the corpse to make sure that it hadn’t started moving again. Seeing it brought to light another question.

"Do you have any other questions, then?" Vincent questioned, relieved that his argument with Red was finally over and that they could proceed as per his plans.

"As a matter of fact I do," Morrigan answered. "What was your relationship to that guy over there?" Morrigan inquired, nodding to the corpse that rested in a bloody pile behind him.

Vincent had a shocked look on his face and Morrigan thought that he heard Red chuckle.

"Well?" Morrigan asked.

"Go on, Vincent, answer the man," Red said as a grin crossed his muzzle.

The room was silent for several minutes.

"I’m waiting," Morrigan yelled not a foot from Vincent’s ear, tapping his foot impatiently, his voice echoing across the cave, making his voice sound hollow and very distant.

Vincent’s face was racing a mile a minute as he tried to figure out a way to explain Morrigan’s question without revealing too much of the plan. Finally, he decided that a direct, yet non-detailed, approach would be best for the time being.

"He is my son," Vincent finally stated.

"Say what?" Morrigan cried, jaw dropping.

Red just laughed.

"Pardon my bluntness but you don’t look like the family-type," Karen mused.

"From the way he greeted him, I’d certainly agree with you one that," Morrigan responded.

"So who was the mother?" Morrigan asked, "Is she still around, or did you have to take her out, too?"

Morrigan began laughing, but stopped when he saw Red’s solemn face.

Suddenly, Vincent’s hand shot out and grabbed Morrigan’s collar and dragged him right up to his face.

Vincent’s eyes were like glowing embers, and when Morrigan tried to look away Vincent increased his hold on him.

Finally, Morrigan spoke. His voice was low and ominous, like the voice of death.

"I am not proud of how things turned out between me and my son, but I most certainly do not need you to speak derogatorily of my beautiful Lucretia," Vincent growled.

Morrigan was speechless.

"On her deathbed, she told me that her greatest desire before she rejoined the planet was to have a child that she could raise herself, away from Hojo and the other evils at ShinRa that had corrupted her first son."

Vincent released his hold on Morrigan, forcibly shoving him away from him. Morrigan stumbled a bit then regained his balance.

"Who was the first…?" Morrigan began.

"Who was I to refuse her request?" Vincent continued, hoping that Morrigan would forget his question.

"At first, everything went well, we gave birth to a beautiful young boy that Lucretia dubbed Alistair."

"Defender of man," Morrigan thought aloud.

"Exactly," Vincent replied. "He was to be everything that Lucretia wanted in a son. Unfortunately, she died prematurely, approximately a year earlier than estimated, leaving me to raise the young child myself."

"That doesn’t sound like your field of expertise," Karen commented.

"I failed her," Vincent exclaimed, bowing his head.

"Relax, we can’t all be Father of the Year," Morrigan responded, putting his hand comfortingly on Vincent’s shoulder, only to have it pushed away coldly.

"No, we all can’t. But how many fathers do you know have had their child make attempts on their life?" Vincent challenged.

"Um… not that many," Morrigan admitted.

"You see? I failed her," Vincent repeated.

"So what went wrong?" Karen asked.

"Deprived of a matriarch, the boy predictably looked to me as a role model and as a nurturer."

Morrigan grimaced. He couldn’t quite envision Vincent as a nurturer.

"But I was unable to provide the boy with the proper regulations and structure a normal family provides, and my last ditch efforts were lost and chaotic. I attempted to explain to him what exactly his lineage was, what I was and what I had done. I said earlier that his older brother had been pure evil, malicious and megalomaniacal. I killed him and Alistair hated me for it. I was unable to get through to him the circumstances that had forced me to kill the offspring of his mother."

Morrigan was too enraptured in Vincent’s tale to think about the other son that he was talking about.

"He began to study the old books in the ShinRa mansion that I showed you earlier. He learned about the same objects of power that his brother had done years before. He followed his brother down the same twisted path to insanity. His depraved and sadistic thoughts nurtured by thoughts of power and godliness. A standoff was inevitable. We faced each other in this very room, and with Red’s help, trapped him in here. I let him think that he had killed me so that he would be content here and not try to escape."

"So then why come back here?" Karen spoke up.

"A good question," Vincent responded. "What we did not know when we trapped him here was that he had recently come into possession of one of the more dangerous objects of power, the Black Materia."

"Is that what this whole campaign was about? A stupid rock?" Morrigan demanded.

"This is not just some stupid rock, you addle brained moron," Red interrupted. "If used properly, that stupid rock could mean the end of life on this planet!"

"Preposterous! Such a destructive power could not possibly exist without my knowing about it!" Morrigan insisted.

"You didn’t know about the library or Red’s lair, either, though," Vincent added.

"So…I…uh… that’s a bit different, though," Morrigan stammered.

"Is it?" Vincent queried.

"Well…" Morrigan started, but shut up and began shuffling the toe of his shoe into the cave floor.

"Assuming your right," Karen intervened, "Where is this Black Materia, then?"

"That would be the billion gil question at the moment," Vincent answered, then sighed. "It’s what we came to find out. I’m positive that it’s here. We must…"

"I’m not so sure it is," Karen interrupted.

"Oh?" Vincent replied, turning to face Karen.

"Right before I finished off ugly over there," Karen began, pointing to the corpse with her thumb, "it told me that no matter how hard I looked, I would never find the ultimate black magic here. It said that it had hidden it ‘in the hilt of the world’s most heroic villain’s sword, buried under annals of history yet located at the highest manmade site on the planet.’ Any idea what that means?"

Ever so slowly, a grin broke over the solemn face of Vincent Valentine.

"Yes," he finally exclaimed.

"Well? Where is it, then?" Morrigan queried.

"The ShinRa HQ located at the center of the ruins in Midgar," Vincent explained.
"You want us to go into the Midgar ruins?" Morrigan yelled.

"Is there a problem with this?" Vincent asked.

"Are you kidding me? Of course there is! There have been over fifty expeditions sent into the jungles surrounding the old Midgar, some of them with crews upwards of 100 men, all armed with the latest in Rachwell Tech. Weaponry, yet none of the expeditions ever made it back alive. They all mysteriously disappeared within three days after entering the ruins!"

"I cannot say that they were unfortunate losses, but we have something that they do not have," Red explained, a mischievous glint in his eye.

"And what, pray tell, might that be?" Morrigan asked.

"Us," Red replied plainly, nodding to himself and at Vincent.

"You? What can you possibly do?" Morrigan cried.

"Do not underestimate us," Vincent said sternly, shutting Morrigan up quickly.

"However, this does complicate things considerably. Red, do you still have any of your materia?"
"Scarcely any, I am afraid," Red replied. "Yuffie was rather insistent that we give her our materia after the war."

"Regrettably so," Vincent responded. He looked back at the shotgun he had used to kill Alistair, at the small emerald jewel that was encased on the outside of its barrel.

"I have the Cure materia that was laying in the gun I used earlier," Vincent told the group, "But unless he had any more materia lying around, the Cure materia is all I have. But even that is the least of our problems."
"How so?" Morrigan asked.

"Think about it for a minute. All of us can slip past the excavators easily, but how do we explain Red?"

Morrigan bit his lower lip and pondered the situation for a little bit.

"I think I may have a solution to that small problem, but I’m not so sure Red is going to like it all that much."

"I’m all ears," Red responded.

Malcolm was grinning from ear to ear at the news that he had just heard. Thanks to the bug his contact at the Asylum had planted on Morrigan he was able to sit back from the safety of his office in the Science Dept. and let Morrigan get his hands dirty.

At first he had wanted to just keep tabs on Morrigan, to make sure that he wasn’t going to make any discoveries in the next few days that could jeopardize his plans to replace Morrigan as the Executive President of the Archaeology Department. The Annual Executive Meeting was only a few days away and Malcolm wanted to be sure that his chances at usurping Morrigan were as high as possible.

But things had just gotten a bit more interesting.

Malcolm had listened to everything that Morrigan and his associated had said since he heard Cole reveal himself to Morrigan and that girl he was with. Kimmy or something like that.

It now sounded like they were preparing to brave the dense jungles of the Midgar ruins. A successful expedition of that nature would most definitely thwart his plans. He hadn’t sabotaged over thirty expeditions there to get where he was only to let one slip by and have his best-laid plans blow up in his face.

He frowned and switched off the speaker and with a quick push off the wall with his legs, rolled his chair over to his phone. One quick call was all that he needed.

The phone rang and rang. Finally he heard the familiar voice of Daniel Prescott, the Executive President of the Science Department.

"What is it, Malcolm?" Prescott demanded.

Malcolm gave Prescott a toothy grin.

"Professor Prescott," Malcolm said in a mock singsong voice, "How nice to see you again."

"Get to the point, Malcolm. I don’t have time for bullshit chitchat. I’m a busy man!"

Malcolm’s grin disappeared.

"Very well, sir. I wanted to inform you that Doctor Morrigan, the Executive President of the Archaeological Department has recently embarked on a campaign into the Midgar jungle and I…"
"He did what?" Prescott screamed.

"Embarked on a campaign into the Midgar ruins and I…" Malcolm repeated.

"What the hell is wrong with him? Doesn’t he know that the last team was over two hundred well-trained men with the latest in Rachwell armament and they got ripped apart by a swarm of hoppers in less than an hour?"
"It must have slipped his mind sir," Malcolm answered.

"Well that settles it! Malcolm, since you were the one who knew about this and since you are my most expendable employee, you’re going in after him!"

"Yes sir!" Malcolm replied.

"Report to the reconnaissance room immediately for your assigned team," Prescott finished, immediately slamming down the phone, leaving Malcolm listening to a dial tone.

Malcolm hung up the phone and began to laugh.
"It’s just too easy," he though. "These puppets can’t even tell when someone is pulling their strings."

Malcolm got up and walked over to the far wall of his office and put his hand on what looked like a normal area of wall. Suddenly, the area around Malcolm’s hand sank into the wall and a door slid open where the area of wall had once been. Malcolm, without a moment’s hesitation, walking into the ominously dark hall, walking its length in complete darkness until a pale green light slowly came into view. Finally, he reached a door, which the pale green light was emanating from. He walking inside, and was greeted by the sight of several large pieces of machinery, all his own design. No one but he knew that these existed. He walked over to a large glass chamber filled with a green fluid, which was being fed by three large tubes which connected to a large machine that took up most of the far wall. The lights that dotted its side bathed the room in eerie red and blue lights, and the fluid it fed into the glass chamber glowed an even brighter green, the lights all playing off Malcolm’s distorted features, casting horrible looking shadows on the wall. Malcolm walked over to the large machine in the corner and checked the thermostat to make sure that the machine did not overheat. To his surprise it was several degrees cooler than he had guessed it would be. He walked over to the far side of the machine and opened a small door. Inside lay a medium-sized crystal, feeding power to wires and circuits that stretched to all corners of the machine. The crystals he had found in the ancient city really had proven to have a use other than looking nice after all.

He shut the door and walked over to the large glass chamber, which was covered with a light frost, obscuring from view the true contents of the chamber. This was Malcolm’s special prize, his ace in the hole. It was only a matter of time before she was complete and Malcolm’s true plans could come to completion.

He wiped off some of the frost that lay on the chamber, revealing it’s hidden contents. Revealing the beautiful face of a young woman with long brown hair. She was perfect.

"Soon…" Malcolm hissed to the girl, rubbing his hands over the glass. "Soon the world will be ours. Ours Aeris... and one other’s"

With that he left the room to prepare for his expedition into the Midgar jungle.

Red growled at a passing excavator as Morrigan, Karen, and Vincent led him down the path from the caves to the waiting aircraft that Morrigan had recently called in for from the local airport about twenty miles away.

Morrigan’s plan had been simple. Pretend that Red was a wild animal that he and Vincent, who was still Cole, had caught attacking Karen and claim that they were taking back to HQ for further research. The only reason Red had agreed to go along with the plan was the promise that if anyone got too close he had permission to bite or claw at them.

"So far so good," Morrigan thought.

Then came the part that Red had liked the least. To go along with their idea of portraying him as a wild animal, Red had to shoved into a cage in the back of the plane and heavily sedated.

"This is so demeaning," Red had whispered to Morrigan before he slumped down onto the cage floor.

However, as another part of the plan, Morrigan had left the cage unlocked so that when they landed on the outskirts of the jungle, Red could escape and they could meet without suspicion at a designated rendezvous point far enough into the jungle that the pilot would not notice them. Also, he had been the one to sedate Red so he was able to make it look like he had heavily sedated him when in fact Red was just drowsy, so he would be recovered by the time they landed.

Finally, after loading their luggage into the jet, Morrigan hopped into the open door and plopped down in the seat next to Karen, buckling up and laying his head onto the headrest and leaning the chair as far back as it would go.

In his opinion the only good thing about the industrial sized planes were that since they were so slow, it gave him plenty of time for relaxing. It also didn’t hurt that it gave Red time to wake up, either, though. With that, he drifted to sleep.

Five hours and twenty-three minutes later, the captain announced that the plane would be landing in about three minutes, as soon as they found a decent landing area.

Morrigan grumbles and sat up, his hair a crumpled mess and red crease marks dotted his face from when his cheek had lay on the seat.

"As soon as we find a suitable landing spot, we will land." The pilot repeated.
Morrigan grumbled again. The worst part about the Midgar area was that since it was, for the most part, uninhabited by people, the entire area was overgrown. It was almost impossible to find a decent patch of landing ground.

After about ten minutes the pilot finally announced that he had found a decent patch of landing ground.

Morrigan breathed a sigh of relief. If the captain hadn’t found a landing patch then they might have had to parachute out. He gulped as he imagined himself trying to explain the concept of parachuting to Red, considering Red would still be in his cage at the time.

Pushing the thought out of his head he got up and tried to flatten out some of the wrinkles in his clothes and fix up his hair, causing Vincent to give him an odd look.

"What?" Morrigan asked.

"Once we get into the thick of the jungle, your hair and clothes will be the least of your worries," Vincent replied.

"Uh…" Morrigan stammered as he followed Vincent out the door. Morrigan opened up the back of the plane and was greeted by a snarling Red, who pounced on him, and after shredding his clothes a bit, ran off into the jungle.

"Ow…" Morrigan groaned, rubbing the side of his head.

Karen helped him up and began unloading their equipment. Morrigan didn’t even bother to brush himself off this time.

Vincent, still under the guise of Dr. Victor Cole, chose a particularly nasty looking gun from one of the larger duffel bags. After assembling the barrel and loading several capsules into it, he cocked it twice and held it up to his face so he could see through the scope.

"Perfect," he said, slinging it over his shoulder. After that, he chose two much smaller pistols and shoved them into his pockets. Finally, he took out a very lethal looking knife and slid it into the side of his boot. When he was all done he looked like he was ready to fight a war.

Morrigan just gaped at him.

"Gape all you want, but we are ill-prepared for what lurks in the denser areas of the jungle as it is. I suggest you equip yourself with as much as you can carry."

Morrigan complied without another word.

First, he chose a medium-sized rifle, which he swung about a few times to get used to the weight, then slung it over his shoulder. He then selected some incendiary capsule grenades from a small red bag and put them, along with some extra rounds, into a pouch that he had clipped onto his belt.

Lastly, he chose a knife, albeit much smaller than Vincent’s, and clipped the sheath onto the opposite side of his belt.

"I’m ready, Cole," he said.

"Good," Vincent replied, acknowledging both Morrigan’s comment and out of relief that he hadn’t called him Vincent.

"Karen?" he inquired.

"Ready," she called from behind the plane.

"This I have to see," Morrigan chuckled, but stopped immediately when he saw Karen.

If there ever was someone dressed for combat then Karen was that person. She had changed from her normal attire into camouflage shirt and pants, her numerous pockets full of rations and weapons. Her sleeves had been ripped away to reveal her muscular arms, and she had chosen a pair of brown gloves that terminated right below her elbow. The gloves were particularly nasty looking and had a shiny metal bar across her knuckles from which four claws protruded. She had also seemed to have chosen the heaviest boots she could find, although she did not seem to have much trouble moving around in them.

"What do you think?" she asked.

Vincent nodded approvingly, then turned back to Morrigan.

"She," he said, pointing to Karen, "has the right idea!"

With that, he took a small bag and threw it over his shoulder and began walking towards the jungle. Karen stifled a laugh and ran after Vincent. Morrigan had a perplexed look on his face.

"What?" he yelled back at Vincent.

Finally, he decided that he should just run with it and hurried to catch up with Vincent and Karen.

As soon as the small group was out of sight, the captain of the ship looked around quickly and reached into his pocket and pulled out a cell phone. He punched a button and it rang for a minute, then someone picked up.

"Did everything go as planned?"
"Everything went as smoothly as possible, boss!" the captain affirmed.

"Excellent," Malcolm replied.

"Tell me, though, boss. Why give them working weapons?"
"Because the weapons will allow them to cut a path all the way to the heart of the ruins. That will make the work for my team all that much easier. I estimated the time that it will take them to reach the center of the ruins. In approximately three and a half-hours the time bomb I had you sneak onto Morrigan’s gun will go off, effectively snuffing him and his companions. But don’t worry about me, though. You just continue to do what your told! Malcolm out."

It had been three hours of wading through marshes, swamps, and wetlands before the team had finally made it to the upper plate. So far they had made it thus far with minimal effort.

"This is where it gets difficult," Red commented. "Be on the lookout for danger. Shoot anything that moves!"
They proceeded down the deserted street, tufts of grass and trees breaking the concrete roads, crumbling them and making them seem as though it were more than the ruins of a city, more like an alien landscape.

Behind Morrigan, something chirped.

"Uh… did I just hear something chirp?" Morrigan asked the group.
Red spun around and sniffed the air.

"Get to high ground!" he yelled, as a throng of large two-legged insect-like creatures began emerging from all of the houses that they had just passed.

The group struggled like mad to make their way the side of a building with a pile of boxes stacked alongside it.

"How convenient," Morrigan growled between clenched teeth as he tried to pull himself up onto the roof. Right before the small creatures caught up with him, Vincent and Karen pulled him up right before a small group of them pounced onto him.

From their fortified position, Vincent wasted no time in kicking down the pile of boxes that the creatures had been climbing. From there, he began a relentless assault of fire onto the creatures. Morrigan was still fumbling with his. It wasn’t working. He started banging it against the floor.

"Uh, Rob?" Karen interrupted.

"The safety’s on," she said with a smile, reaching out and flicking a switch on the side of the gun. After that, she turned back to the fray, throwing an incendiary grenade into the swarm, prompting a large fiery explosion and the high-pitched screeches of several of the creatures as the hydrogen plasma that was released began to eat away at their bodies.

"What the hell are these things?" Morrigan cried as he fell beside Vincent and opened fire on the swarm.

"They’re called Hoppers," Vincent replied as he opened up one of them with a well-placed shot from his shotgun. "Very nasty creatures. You don’t want to die to these things because their saliva has an enzyme that will keep you alive while they eat you."

"I just don’t want to die!" Morrigan cried as he blasted the area where a small handful had been gathered not a minute ago.

"Then I suggest actually aiming the damn gun!" Red called from behind them.

Morrigan turned to yell something back at him but saw that Red was in deep meditation. Suddenly, the area Red was facing was engulfed in a flare three times larger than the ones that their grenades were making.

"What the hell was that?" Morrigan yelled to Vincent, who was busy sniping off the few remaining Hoppers that were still trying to get up the toppled boxes.

"That would be Flare," Vincent called back. "It was one of the materia that I found back at Alistair’s lair. I suggest you watch out because if I’m not mistaken Red enjoys following that up with Cosmo Moon."

"What’s Cosmo Mo…" Morrigan began, but stopped short when he saw Red concentrating again. But this time, the assault on their foes did not come from down below, rather the heavens. As Morrigan looked on, a star in the heavens began getting larger and larger, until it was clearly visible in the afternoon sky. Morrigan knew what was coming and ducked for cover.

The meteorite slammed into the chaotic battlefield with the force of a small nuclear explosion. Most caught in the blast were killed instantly, while those farthest from the blast died much more slowly. Even Morrigan could feel the extreme heat of the blast. In the climax of the explosion, the house they were positioned on imploded, sending them plummeting down into the bloodstained streets.

When the attack was finally over, Morrigan pulled himself up from the rubble and looked around. The entire area was a wreck. All buildings within a 100-yard radius of the blast were totaled. There was not a Hopper or Hopper corpse to be seen anywhere and he guessed that if any had survived Red’s onslaught that they were crushed under the falling rubble.

He looked down and found his clothes to be in tatters.

"Aw shit!" Morrigan cried.

"I told you that your clothes would be the least of your worries," Vincent called from inside the debris. Not five feet from Morrigan, two large boulders suddenly flew up into the air and Vincent emerged from the wreckage along with Red. Morrigan noticed that Vincent’s clothes were ripped all to hell as well. Vincent noticed Morrigan’s attention to his clothes and grinned, walking over to one of the duffel bags he had brought with him.

"Unlike you, my dear Doctor Morrigan, I came prepared."

With that, he disappeared behind a large boulder and reemerged minutes later decked in a navy blue business suit and a red cape.

"Much better," Vincent said. "It’s been far too long since I wore clothes this comfortable."

He removed his left hand from behind his cape to reveal his gloved hand to have been replaced with a shiny bronze claw. Vincent gave his hand a few quick flexes, then returned his hand behind his cape.

With his other hand he withdrew a very large, very mean looking gun. Although it was much smaller than the one he had previously wielded, Morrigan noticed that this one had not melted when Red summoned his Lunar Cosmos, or whatever Vincent had called it.

"The Death Penalty…" Vincent stated, twirling the gun around on his finger before finally holstering it on his belt.

"Not as strong as the newer models, but certainly a lot more sturdy!"

"Now that you’ve finished showing off, Vincent, what do you say that we continue on?"

"A fine idea, Red," Morrigan intervened, "But first we have to find Karen."
A guttural moan from under some more boulders answered that question. As soon as Vincent had cleared them out of the way they discovered Karen, her left foot twisted at an odd angle.

"Karen!" Morrigan cried, sliding into the pit to help her to her feet. She took his hand and propped herself up on his shoulder.
"Uh… my ankle. I think I broke it," she said.

"That’ll certainly slow us down," Red commented.

"Not necessarily," Vincent replied, reaching down to his gun.

Thinking that Vincent was going to shoot her, Morrigan opened his mouth to protest, but stopped when he saw Vincent remove a small emerald jewel from the side of it. Concentrating on it, Vincent produced a soft green glow, which moments later enveloped Karen’s leg.

Karen watched in amazement as her foot painlessly reattached itself to her leg bone. When he glow was gone, Karen found that she could walk again.

"Whoa…" was all she was able to say.

"Now shall we get going?" Red asked.

"Most definitely," Vincent responded.

The next fifteen minutes or so were uneventful. They quickly made their way through the catacomb-like streets thanks to Red and Vincent’s excellent memories. They finally arrived at a street corner with a small truck parked in the alleyway.

"Hopefully it still works," Vincent said, walking up to it. Suddenly a large snake-like creature leaped out from behind the truck and pounced on Vincent.

"Aaugh!" Vincent cried in pain as the creature tore through his arm. "Shoot it!"

Morrigan reached for his gun, but found that it once again did not work. There was a small red light on the side that was flashing on and off faster and faster.

"Damn it! It had to break now!" he yelled, throwing the useless weapon at the creature, which swallowed it without hesitation.

A minute later the creature stood up and began staggering, making odd guttural noises that Morrigan swore sounded almost like choking. Vincent slipped away to heal himself while the others watched the creature’s odd behavior. A minute later, the creature exploded, sending yellow mucus flying at the group, soaking them in it. The explosion reached the truck, and set off a chain reaction, blowing the entire alley wall apart.

"Damn it!" Morrigan yelled.

"You should talk! I got this crap on my fur!" Red screamed.

"So what?" Morrigan retorted.

"You try taking baths with your tongue!" Red shot back.

Morrigan shuddered at the thought.

"Children, children" Vincent interrupted, walking back over to them with a newly healed arm and a noticeably clean suit. "We have more important matters to attend to. For instance, that explosion was obviously meant for one of us. We must be ever vigilant because it is quite possible that someone does not want us to finish this mission!"

"Uh Vincent?" Morrigan interrupted.

"What?"

"We’re here."
"What!" he cried.

Morrigan pointed to the hole that the explosion had made. Looking up through it, Vincent found the ShinRa HQ towering above him.

"All right! We’re here!" he repeated, then walked through the hole up to the front entrance. It was locked but the windowpanes had been shattered, making access easy but getting around the shards of glass difficult. With a little effort they were able to get across, having to carry Red so he would not cut the pads on his paws.

The inside was a lot less spectacular than Morrigan had envisioned.

The entire lobby was completely trashed, a dank smell invading Morrigan’s nostrils. Weeds and vines strangled the walls, weakening some of them to the point where they had begun to crumble apart. Predictably, the entire room was pitch black, but a distinct humming sound could be heard. The entire room looked as through it had been torn apart by wild animals, and Morrigan guessed that that was not far from the truth, although at the moment nothing distinctive could be heard to make him assume that. The entire room was silent save his group’s footsteps, which echoed loudly across the room, making Morrigan wish that they hadn’t worn such heavy boots.

Vincent led them to the center of the lobby, right in front of a large set of stairs, past the front desk, which bore several deep claw marks as well as several dark brown stains which smelled of long dried blood.

Morrigan took out a flashlight from his satchel and the strong beam of light joined the ones that Vincent and Karen had just flicked on. The three beams swathed a path of white light through the darkness that engulfed the room.

Morrigan waved his around, making sure that there wasn’t anything that was going to leap out at him from the long shadows that their flashlights were creating.

"We can only access the first three floors with the stairs," Vincent explained. "We need to get the power back on so we can use the elevators."

"Oh, that’s just great!" Morrigan cried, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "I’ll just call our neighborhood mechanic and have him come on over and look at it!"

"Shut up!" Red yelled.

Morrigan pointed the flashlight directly at Red. The light reflecting off his eyes made them shine ominously. Red narrowed his eyes and looked up at Morrigan.

"Get that damn light out of my face!" Red demanded.

Morrigan removed the light from Red’s face and resumed his random searching, while Vincent moved around the lobby with Karen looking for the control panel for the building’s power.

Morrigan’s searching brought him behind the front desk. What greeted him was the grisly sight of a dusty skeleton still dressed in work clothes with it’s skull crushed by a large boulder that Morrigan guessed had fallen from the ceiling. There was dried blood all over the skeleton and as Morrigan backed away in horror, his light fell upon a gray box near where the skeleton lay, which was labeled ‘Power’.

"Uh…" Morrigan yelled to Vincent and Karen, who were on the opposite side of the lobby examining an old advertisement for a contest at The Turtle’s Paradise that hung on a bulletin board on the opposite end of the room.

"I remember winning that contest," Vincent said casually as his flashlight played over the faded text of the withered old parchment.

When they heard Morrigan call, they rushed over to where he was standing, Red bounding down the stairs from the upper floors.

"What is it?" Vincent asked, detecting the note of horror in Morrigan’s voice.

"I… I found the con…control panel," Morrigan stammered, pointing to the small gray box with his flashlight beam.

"Then why didn’t you try to turn the power on?" Red asked.

"Because…" Morrigan said, lowering the beam of light to where the remains of the secretary lay.

"Oh…" was Vincent’s only reply.

"Sorry," Morrigan responded.

"It’s all right, we all have our personal phobias," Vincent explained.

With that, Vincent walked up to the body and with the toe of his boot nudged the ancient remains, which crumbled instantly, covering his boot in white powder. He kicked the dust off and marched past the crushed head to where the control panel was. He reached for the small handle on the side, prompting the entire door to come off its hinges. Revealed in front of him was a small black panel with multitudes of switches, some labeled, some too faded to read.

"I’ll just flip them all," he proclaimed.

"Might as well," Red replied.

Vincent reached out and with a few flicks of his wrist, flipped all of the switches on the board.

At first, nothing happened.

"Well?" Morrigan asked, looking around.

"Give it time. Remember, this hasn’t been used in over three hundred years," Vincent reminded him.

Gradually the hum that they had heard before began to get louder and louder. Gradually, the lights that still remained attached to the ceiling began to flicker to life, bathing the group in much welcomed light, pushing back the long shadows that their flashlights had created.

"Cool," Morrigan exclaimed as he looked around.

"Hopefully the elevator was not damaged badly and still usable," Vincent stated.
He led the group up the three long flights of stairs and over to the far wall on the third level. There, he approached the cargo elevator doors. He pressed the button and a low groan of machinery that hadn’t been used in years was heard from above. Slowly, the groan got louder until finally the elevator doors opened, sending a cloud of dust flying into the group’s faces.

Morrigan approached the door, but Vincent stopped him.

"No," he said, "Only one of us can go at a time. The cables are probably too worn from age to support us all. Red will go first because if the cord breaks later, the rest of us can climb up the elevator cords."

So they took it very slowly, much to Morrigan’s displeasure. Red went up first, then Vincent, then Karen, and finally himself. Fortunately, the cord, although very weak, was still able to support them individually.

When Morrigan stepped out of the elevator, he was in a large room with several rusty old tables and several skeletons of what he assumed were once plants, perhaps bushes or trees.

"What is this place?" Morrigan asked, looking around as he walked and almost bumping into Karen in the process.

"This is the 63^rd floor of the ShinRa building," was the response.

"How many floors does this place have?" Morrigan queried.

"Approximately 75 or so," Vincent responded. "About 70 above ground, and several subterranean levels as well.

"Impressive," was Morrigan’s only reply.

"From here, we can either take the stairs or try the elevator," Karen added.

"Just a minute," Red replied.

With that, he bowed his head to the floor and began sniffing, following the scent around one of the giant plant potters, out of the group’s sight.

"Come over here," he called to the group a minute later.

Upon arrival, the group was greeted to yet another grisly sight. This one was a skeleton with several ribs shattered, a large piece of shrapnel driven through it’s chest, its hands grasping the slab of metal in an apparently futile attempt to free himself of it. Nearby, a large boulder rested in the center of a small crater, many large daggers of metal from the table it had crashed into lay scattered about.

"Look at the uniform," Red spoke, interrupting the daze Morrigan was in, trying to imagine what it was like for the man.

The uniform was a blue and gray suit. It was the suit of a SOLDIER.

"This was a SOLDIER. Check the pockets," Red continued. "It might have a keycard."

Vincent reached down and ran his hands over the corpse’s pockets. He inserted his hand into its left pocket, producing a small wallet with a musty odor. Vincent flipped it open.

"Hmm…" Vincent muttered, flipping through the various credentials the wallet held.

"Credit cards… library card… receipts…" Vincent ran off. "A few one-gil bills… aha!"

Vincent reached deep into the wallet and produced a small white card with black and red print. There was a small red ShinRa insignia in the front corner and a silver strip on the back that resembled a barcode.

"This will give us the access that we need," Vincent explained. He flipped the card over in his hand and put it in his pocket. He looked around for a minute then walked over to the elevator.

"We can use the elevator with the keycard," Vincent explained. "This one was a bit better made because it was made for use of the President and his officers, so it should still be in good condition."

They piled onto the elevator, a very tight squeeze, and Vincent ran the keycard through the slot in the side of the machine. All the numbers up to the 70^th level lit up and Vincent hit the glowing 70 button. The elevator lurched suddenly, throwing them off-balance, but none of them falling due to the confined space. Morrigan was next to Vincent and he found himself looking out over the entire city with nothing separating him from it but open air.

"Uh… why isn’t there any glass covering the elevator shaft?" Morrigan queried, unable to help looking back to the deathly scary-looking drop.

"There was an incident here a long, long while ago," Red explained, "Between us and some very unkind ShinRa death machines."

"Oh…" Morrigan responded blankly, his gaze returning to the vast space between him and the ground. Despite his fear of heights, he had to admit that it was a really spectacular view. He could see almost the entirety of the upper plates. As he looked on, he noticed that the space where one of the plates should have been was empty.

"Hey," he said, pointing to the space, marked on the far wall with a large white 7, "the Sector 7 plate is missing."
Vincent looked over at Red and they grimaced.

"What?" Morrigan asked.
"I’ll explain later," Red replied.

Despite the hum of the elevator, there was silence after that. Morrigan thought that he heard sounds of a battle far below but he knew that it just had to be his imagination.

With a small electronic crackling sound that had once been a chime, the elevator to signaled them that it had reached its destination.

"This is our stop," Vincent declared.

"All right, then… everybody off," Red ordered. "And Morrigan," Red added, giving him a steely glare, "Try not to step on my tail this time!"

After they had all exited the elevator, Morrigan swept the perimeter of the area with his eyes. What looked like it had once been a proud throne-room for the President of ShinRa, the president of the world, was now nothing more than a run down ghost town, as broken and ruined as the rest of the building. The large double doors that separated the main hall from the President’s office were blown off their hinges, one of the remains of the doors embedded in the far wall near the elevator and the other ground into the floor. The President’s office looked like it had been destroyed by a bomb of some sort. All the windows had shattered from the outside and most of the ceiling has fallen down to the floor. Morrigan walked over to the area and looked up into one of the holes, the night sky greeting him. He looked down and a gaping hole that stretched many levels of the complex greeted him. He hastily backed away from it, towards the overturned desk. What greeted him there was the morbid site of the remains of a human crushed under the toppled desk. Morrigan was shocked at himself that he didn’t react as badly this time to the grisly site.

"I guess it’s true what they say about being around death," Morrigan muttered to himself before walking back over to where Vincent, Karen, and Red were waiting.

"We must find the Black Materia quickly," Vincent said.

"The sooner we find that piece of crap, the sooner I get a decent night’s sleep," Red added.

"I don’t suppose you saw anything that resembled what we are looking for when you were wandering the other room, did you?" Vincent asked Morrigan, to which he responded with a quick headshake.

"Are you kidding me?" Morrigan cried, "I have no idea what the damn thing looks like!"

Vincent reached into his pocket and pulled out a small green orb that glowed with an unnatural aura in his hand.

"This is a basic example of materia," he began. "This is Restore materia. You saw me use it on Red back in the catacombs. Black Materia looks almost exactly like this, except it is much larger and as black as night."

"Oh…" Morrigan replied plainly. "Y’know, it would have been more helpful if you had told me sooner."

"Shut up," Red snapped.

"Now don’t start that shit again," Karen interrupted. "Lets just find the damn thing and get out of here before you two rip each others throats out!"
"Eloquently put," Vincent mused, nodding his head in amusement. "But she’s right, though. Your feud must take a back seat to the mission at hand."

Without another word, he walked away towards the open room, leaving the others in speechless silence. A moment later they hurried after him.

"All right," Vincent began as the group caught up with him, "I’ll search the inside perimeter with Red. Karen, you search outside with Morrigan, okay?"

They all nodded and went their separate ways; Karen and Morrigan out the side door and Vincent and Red into the interior of the room.

"This sucks!" Morrigan declared defiantly, just out of earshot of Vincent and Red. "Exactly how much is there to look for out here?"

"We still have to look," Karen insisted.

"For what? This entire area is goddamn barren! The only thing I’ll get out here is a cold!"

With that, Morrigan drew out a handkerchief and blew his nose, the sound echoing across the entire cityscape.

"Cool," Morrigan thought aloud. He walked over to the ledge and leaned out over it as far as he could. "HELLO!" he called as loud as he could.

"HELLO!" he heard his echo call back several times until it faded to the point where he couldn’t hear it anymore. He got back down off the ledge with a satisfied look on his face.

Karen was giving him an odd look.

"What?" he asked innocently, breaking into a wide grin.

Karen just stared at him for a minute, but then suddenly broke into hysterical fits of laughter.

"Just like a kid," she mused. "And here I thought that Executives were supposed to be prestigious!"

Morrigan grinned and wrapped his arm around her, drawing her in close to him.

"And you don’t think that I’m prestigious?" he queried.

"I think you’re a nut!" she declared, laughing.

"Sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don’t," Morrigan began singing.

"Oh…" Karen said suddenly.

Morrigan frowned. "What’s wrong?"

Suddenly, the grin returned. "I never knew that you were such a terrible singer!"

Morrigan’s grin returned. "Why do you think that I took a job at Rachwell instead of becoming a singer?"

They began laughing again. Suddenly, Karen kissed him, quickly on the lips. Morrigan stopped laughing and gave her a serious look.

"What was that for?" he questioned, a half grin on his face.

"For everything. In the past week since I met you, my life has gotten better and better. You gave me a terrific job at a huge company, I can actually support myself now, I owe you everything."

Morrigan’s solemn face returned. "Unfortunately, I cannot accept you…" he began.

Now it was Karen’s turn to frown. "What?" she demanded.

"Well, you see," Morrigan explained, his smile returning, "I was sworn to chastity at age 12…"

"Well, we’ll see how long you keep that vow…" she said seductively.

"Ooh…" Morrigan smiled, but then pushed her away.
"What now?"

"We don’t have time for this right now," he stated. "We have to look for the Black Materia."

"Your right," she said, regaining her composure. She took a few quick looks around and turned back to Morrigan and shrugged.

"Oh well… not here," she said. "Lets get back inside and see what the others have found."

Morrigan nodded and they began walking back when something came to Morrigan’s attention. Suddenly, it hit him.

"Oh, I feel like such a dumbass for not figuring this out sooner!" Morrigan cried. "You said that Alistair said that it was at ‘the highest manmade site on the planet’."

"Yeah, so?" Karen asked, trying to see where Morrigan was going with this.

"The inside of a building is not the highest point of a building! The roof is!"

Karen began laughing so hard she almost fell over.
"That’s brilliant!" she exclaimed. "We have to go tell the others."

They ran back into the room just as Red and Vincent were coming out. Morrigan wasted no time in giving his theory on where the sword might be hidden. After a quick agreement, they decided to use grappling hooks to scale the remaining story of the building and retrieve the sword.

Once on top of the building, they discover that the lightning rod that was attached to the top of the building had fallen down. After sifting through the rubble for some time, Karen finally produced the missing Masamune blade; complete with the Black Materia wedged into one of the materia slots in the hilt.

Vincent was about to go over and congratulate her when he suddenly fell unconscious, quickly followed by the others and lastly Red, who just barely caught a glimpse of a man wielding a gas pump out of the corner of his eye before he went down.

Morrigan’s vision came back a few minutes after he woke up, only to find that he was tied to a pillar in the main hall.

"What the hell is this?" Morrigan yelled out to whomever was listening. He was answered with a small fit of maniacal cackling. As a figure stepped into his line of sight he was able to give a face to the laughter. What he saw made him sick to his stomach.

"Dr. Morrigan, I presume," Malcolm said, giving Morrigan a toothy grin full of crooked teeth.

"Malcolm, what is the meaning of this?" Morrigan demanded.

Malcolm was about to answer when a small troop of burly men and one woman with a long metal staff walked in, just as the others fluttered back into consciousness.

"Wha…what is this?" Vincent demanded.

"Sir, what are you doing?" one of the men asked. "I thought we were sent in to rescue Dr. Morrigan and his companions. Why do you have them tied up?"

Malcolm gave the cadet a steely glare.

"You want to know why?" Malcolm asked, reaching behind his back and pulling out a gun.

"Here’s why," he stated as he expertly shot the cadet between the eyes, then turned and mortally wounded two other cadets. Immediately, the remaining cadets had their weapons out and pointed at Malcolm, who sheepishly dropped the gun and raised his hands in the air.

"What can I say, but… GO!" he yelled, and immediately the young girl behind the remaining cadets wound up with her staff, slicing the remaining cadets up before they had a chance to react.

"That had better not be who I think it is," Vincent stated as he watched the young girl’s featured come into view.

"Oh, but it is my dear Dr. Cole, or should I call you Vincent?"

Vincent looked shocked.

"Are you surprised that I know your secret, Mr. Valentine?" Malcolm mused. He walked over to where Morrigan was tied up and reached into his back collar and pulled out a small electronic device.

"Oh the wonders of technology," Malcolm said, laughing and pocketing the bug.

"You’ll pay for this, Malcolm," Vincent growled.

"For what? Kidnapping you? Hardly. Cloning your friend Aeris? No one but a few others and me know that the technology for cloning even exists! Face it boys, I’ve already gotten away with it!"

"It would appear that you were wrong again, Vincent," Red called out. "You chose the wrong one."

"It’s a bit late now though," Vincent replied.

"Yes, it is, because now begins the most important part in my master plan." He reached into his pocket and produced the Black Materia. He reached into his other pocket and pulled out some ancient texts.

"Within one of the books you brought in Morrigan, I have found the means to revive the ancient warrior, Sephiroth!"

Vincent went wide-eyed with rage.

"You idiot! You don’t know what you’re doing! Your actions will end up killing this entire planet!"
"Eh," Malcolm shrugged apathetically. "This planet bores me."

"You will not be able to control him."

"So you say," Malcolm countered. "But you will have to wait while I carry out the ceremony."

With that, he and the Aeris clone walked over to the outside balcony and Malcolm grasped the ancient texts in one hand and the Black Materia in the other.

Morrigan looked on helplessly.

"He is a fool. He will pay for tampering with forces beyond his control," Vincent stated.

"Can he actually revive someone with Black Materia?" Red asked.

"Only someone of evil heart who had enough power to wield it in the first place. As it is, he would only be able to revive Sephiroth and perhaps a few of the Ancients."

"The question at hand is… how do we stop him?" Red replied.

Vincent’s response was masked under a maelstrom of lightning and wind. An area of black the likes Morrigan had never seen before began forming around the area where Malcolm and Aeris stood. Lightning struck the patch of dark several times, until there was an evident patch of gray inside the dark sphere. Suddenly, the lightning began striking the gray area multiple times per second, until finally the gray area was ignited, but not consumed by, a ball of fire, which gradually got larger and larger, never snuffed by the whipping winds.

Soon, the fire began to take form, tendrils of fire extended outwards from the main area, flailing wildly. Soon, definite tone and shadow began to appear. The fire was enveloped with bone and muscle, and lastly skin. Soon, Sephiroth stood complete before Malcolm.

The spell was complete.

Sephiroth opened his eyes, his terrible green eyes, and looked around. For a brief second there was a hint of familiarity in his sweeping gaze, but it quickly faded and Sephiroth collapsed, his legs giving out from under him.

Malcolm and Aeris then dragged the naked man back into the room, dumping him on a pile of blankets next to Morrigan. Morrigan attempted to inch away from the unconscious body but was halted by the ropes that binded him to the pillar.

"You will pay dearly for this affront," Vincent repeated.

"Oh shut up!" Malcolm growled, kicking Vincent across the face.

Aeris stepped forward with her staff raised, but Malcolm halted her.

"It’s all right, he’s no threat to anyone."

"We shall see," Vincent growled menacingly.

"No we won’t." Malcolm countered. "Sephiroth and my clone are more powerful than any man alive, and that is all you are. A man, albeit a very old one at that."

"Why would Aeris listen you anyway? I haven’t heard her say anything about this!"

"And you never will. My Aeris clone is quite mute and quite under my control. All my clones are preprogrammed to obey their master’s orders. As for Sephiroth, I revised the spell a bit so that he would have amnesia when he was summoned. Through rudimentary manipulation, I can easily control him as well. Everything will go according to plan."
"And just what is this o-so grandiloquent plan you have been babbling about so much," Morrigan challenged.

"That is for me, and me alone, to know. Don’t think that just because I have you caught means that I’m going to reveal to you how to spoil my carefully planned scheme. I grew up with spy movies," he declared, with an air of pride.

Morrigan rolled his eyes.

"Just because I know you can’t spoil my plans doesn’t mean that I’m going to just hand you the big, red self-destruct button. It is so tedious to watch you try to ruin my plans. Besides, its time for bed. You’ve stayed up past your bedtime."

Malcolm laughed and pulled out a small tube of pinking fumes and sprayed it in each of their faces, knocking each of them out instantly.

He walked over to his sleeping bag and lay down on his back, his hands behind his head. Aeris came over and snuggled up next to him but he pushed her away.

"Not now, I have to think." He then fell into a dreamless sleep.

His mind was filled will visages of grotesque images and decimated bodies. Fire consumed all images in his mind and in that fire he saw himself, not as he is, but as he once was. A destroyer, a conqueror, a god. His mind was consumed with hateful visions of a man with a large sword and large, blonde hair. His mind was engulfed with pain as the events of their final battle replayed on a loop in a dark corner of his mind. But somewhere, somehow it was calling to him, summoning him. A large orb with a glow as dark as his own heart.

Sephiroth awoke from his nightmare drenched in sweat. He looked around. He didn’t know who he was, where he was, or how he got here. Something was wrong. He knew that there were things he should know that he didn’t.

He felt it call to him, beckon him.

He got up, covering himself with one of the blankets and followed blindly and an invisible hand led him to its destination.

His hand reached out into the darkness and he felt it grab something. Something smooth and round. Suddenly, there was immense pain sweeping through his body and he resisted the urge to cry out. Slowly, his memories returned, the power of the Black Materia easily overcoming the weak binding spell Malcolm had used. The blanket shredded and reformed as his old costume, his old SOLDIER uniform. To make it complete, he materialized his Masamune into his hand, swung it a few times and holstered it. He had what he needed. This world would yet be his. With a maniacal laugh, he flew off into the night sky. He had some… business… to attend to.