Hika-chan: *Shoves Reno forward* Your turn.
Reno: What the fu- *looks out at the readers* Oh hey. Yeah most of the characters and shit... Don't belong to her so.. ya. Can I go now?
HC: *sighs* Yes yes, you can go.
Reno: *smacks her on the butt, she 'eeps!'* Hey thanks babe, see ya round
HC: *rubs her butt* Oh yeah just to let you know it looks like the language is gonna be a bit strong for a while...
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Beautiful Nightmare
An FF7 Fanfic by Hika-chan
Chapter 7: Old Friends From SL-13

Reno began working on the generator when Rufus started on one of the sandwiches. The difference in him was amazing. He supposed being down here living in the dark would change someone, but he was most surprised at how laid back he seemed. In such hard conditions one would expect to be greeted by a hard man. But Rufus had always been a cold hard man, very few times did he ever reveal his nicer side, and only then it was with his closest friends. Even when he would flirt with girls there was always a kind of aura about him that seemed to say, "You know I'll only love you and leave you." Elena was talking to him now, while she messed with the scrambled data on her laptop, telling about the changes in the world and what was going on with the Turks.

"You opened a bar?"

"Uh-huh."

"You. Opened. A bar."

"Yeah."

"With Reno?"

Elena shrugged, "You got a point there but hey, since he's out here right now we might actually be making a profit today!"

Rufus chuckled a bit before taking another bite. His scraggly blonde hair was cut unevenly around his shoulders with most of it was tied back but a good portion of it fell over his face. His facial hair had also grown out, cut just as even as his hair. "God this is so good! I swear you DO NOT want to know what I've been eating."

Yuffie shuddered at the thought. "How long have you been alone down here?"

Rufus shrugged, "A week.. no a month...I think... I don't know. After a while everything just seems to run together, especially without a way to measure time. What are you guys doing down here anyway?"

Reno wipped his face, smearing some oil on his cheek. "My sister had JENOVA cells put in her before Hojo was killed. They've been dormant since the Meteor incident, but now they're after her baby."

Rufus looked at Reno confused, "Reno... you don't have a sister."

"Yeah I do. Remember when I first came here? I said I wanted to join ShinRa so I could find her."

Rufus gave the Turk a blank look. "I was only ten at the time."

"Yeah I know, so was I. Of course I should have realized that was a really dumb plan even then."

Rufus took another bite and by the time he swallowed he thought of something else. "Wait a second, if she's having a baby...Hey Reno who's the father, he's gotta be a real dick if he's not helping you out on this."

"I am helping." Vincent said in his tradmark monotonous voice from his place by the door. He had not moved from that spot since he entered the room. Keeping an eye out the hall, a silent sentinel.

Rufus looked over at the man, having almost completely forgotten him due to his silence. "Oh..."

"..."

"... never mind then, have I seen her before?"

Reno thought a moment, "She was captured for a short time.. but I dunno."

"Yes." Both men turned to the man who once again broke his policy of silence.

"When?"

"I was injured at the time but I believe you're exact words were 'Miss you do realize it is a crime to steal a vehicle in order to use it to hit a ShinRa executive don't you?'"

Rufus stared blankly at the man before he was hit by a small fit of laughter. Elena eyed him oddly, "What?"

He calmed down enough to speak, "Oh my..." he laughed, "You're sister's the one who hit Palmer with a truck!"

Reno stopped and looked off distantly in shock. "Holy shit. I mean I knew Ral was tough but... damn."

Yuffie who was sitting off on the side was getting rather bored, "Reno you done with that damn thing yet? I wanna get the hell outta here as soon as possible."

Reno glared at her, "Quit yer bitchin' I'm on it." A few revs and a jumpstart with his nightstick and the generator was running. "And then there was light! Damn I'm good."

Everyone blinked at the brightness and Reno, for the first time any present could remember (except for Rufus) Reno put his goggles over his eyes. "Alrighty let's see about that info. Elena."

She stood, "Sure thing."

***

As they walked down the now lit halls and stairwell, Yuffie noticed something she found odd. "Why isn't everything down here all messed up? I mean aside from all the dust everything seems to be fine."

"A bunch of us were down here as refuge from meteor. Unfortunately none of us suspected that the doorway would have been blocked. The only good thing about that is that it kept out the creatures that you said are out there."

"I see." They passed a door to another floor that was barred on their side. The door was thicker than the others had been and had a kind of electronic lock. "Hey what's-"

"Don't touch that!"

"eh?"

The others looked at Rufus. "Suffice to say Hojo kept some his little friends down here as well." The young ninja pulled her hand back as though to touch the bar meant death. "Come on, let's just get what you need and get the hell out of here."

***

"I think I found it." Elena called, opening one of the many large filing cabinets. "-ungh- Damn this is heavy." She ran her fingers over several of the file tabs. "'JENOVA cells, plant life reaction to; animal reaction to; Human reaction to injection of; Human reaction to injury from JENOVA mutant... Damn how much of this crap does he have?"

"Hojo had been researching JENOVA for a good thirty years," Vincent answered plainly, "I'm sure there is quite alot."

Elena flipped through some more files before catching sight of something. "Oh thank god!"

"What is it?"

"Looks like he backed up his files on CD too, at least we don't have to carry all these papers back?"

"Are you sure it's the same stuff?" Reno asked.

Elena pulled her laptop out again and inserted the CD. After a few seconds she grinned happily. "Face it tiger, we just hit the jackpot."

"What?"

Elena blushed, "Sorry, read a few old Spiderman comics before we got here."

Yuffie shook her head, "And I thought Vincent was weird."

"ANYway, let's just grab these CDs and get outta here."

"Wait..." Vincent said, remembering something he should never have forgotten. "Ralena was a long standing subject of Hojo's experiments involving Aeris' mother. He should have some files on her. We need to find those as well.

***

The creature stopped, sniffing by the door, something had passed by on the other side recently... something alive. It had never had a reason to leave the place it was on before, the other monsters about had sustained it, but now they were gone and there was fresh food outside. It raised its bladed forearm and melted and cut through the latch on the door.

***

They were on their way back up the stairs when Rufus suddenly stopped. "What's wrong?"

Rufus stared at the door, then checked the floor number on the sign. "The.. the bar, it's gone."

"Huh?"

His eyes went down to the floor. The beam that had held the door shut lay in two pieces. Vincent eyed the door and beam as well. "It's been melted," he noticed, the door showing some warping on it as well.

Rufus turned to the tall man. "You got any ammo suitable for a double barrled sawed off shotgun?"

Vincent reached into his cape checking where he kept his bullets. "Hmm looks like I missed two," he said, tossing it him.

Rufus grinned, "Guess I better make every shot count."

Catching sight of Vincent checking his ammo Yuffie decided it was best to draw her weapon at the ready. Reno turned to the blonde Turk. "Elena, you got the disks so I want you to hang back and be support with spells. That and I don't want any of your explosives to accidently get us stuck in here."

"Right," she nodded.

"Alright everyone keep your guard up, knowing Hojo's pets... this could be anything."

Quietly they continued their trek up the stairs, careful to check any open doors they passed. Reno took point, with Yuffie and Rufus not far behind, then came Elena and last was Vincent guarding their backs. Everyone stretched their senses to an unbearable limit, every breath, footstep, and flickering bulb sounding far louder than was necessary. Reno stopped before the door to SL-5. He glanced into the hall, the flickering lights and moving shadows not doing the best for his imagination.

Nervous and scared Yuffie was about to ask why she had stopped when they all heard some kind of crash. Gripping her Conformer tightly she looked back at Rufus who only seemed to want to get this over with. There was another one of the odd clashing noises and Rufus was able to recognize as bone on bone. "The crypt," he whispered, it was barely more than a breath but all heard and understood. Reno looked back at him a question and anger in his eyes. The question was obvious, "Should we fight it or trap it here and leave?"

Before an answer could be brought forth a loud screach tore through their heads. All their hands went to their ears in pain. All but Rufus, whose eyes were wide as he seemed to recognize the sound. He quickly reched for the door and tried to shut it as quietly and quickly as possible. "Run." They all charged up the stairs, Rufus now in the back. He heard the distinct sound of a door being ripped off it's hinges. "MOVE!"

Reno stopped on one of the landings, letting the girls pass before him. "Elena you better make sure you keep those disks safe," He panted, "I wanna be an uncle dammit."

The girl pulled out a grenade and gestured with it to Reno, "Want me to drop this?"

"Go for it."

She pulled the pin and took a split second to drop it over the rail. "8 ..7.. 6..." she panted, "...1" the explosion was accompanied with a similar shreik from before but none of them stopped. They reached the elevator and Vincent and Rufus easily forced the doors opened. They weren't five feet into the room before the creature burst out the floor of the elevator they had just occupied.

Yuffie fell back on the ground, still on the otherside of the elevator. She looked up at the creature before her in horror. Its tail swung through the air behind it like a whip. It had four arms, the top larger two like those of a preying mantis, serrated blades glowing red. The other two were some cross between human and reptile, but shorter than a man's, three scaled and clawed fingers on the end of each. It had eyes of an eagle, shining like liquid gold. Its mouth had a few scraps of cloth hanging from its spider-like mandibles. She didn't even register Reno stepping infront of her.

On the other side Elena was slowly stepping back as the creature turned in their direction. "Elena find cover!" Vincent commanded. Somehow the woman understood and obeyed. Then Vincent, ever the calm one, turned to the open mouthed ex-president. "What is it?"

ohshitohshitohshitohshitohshit had been Rufus' train of thought until Vincent spoke up. "It's the Reaper."

***

The man boarded the boat to Bone Village. He couldn't believe it, he had never thought he could find such a thing so close and so easily. Now he could show them all, even his late mentor, that he was no screw up. He would show them all now. "I'll show you what this worthless assisstant can do now Hojo," he muttered, tightly holding the small vial in his grasp.

Back at the hospital in Kalm one of the doctors looked in one of the storage containers somewhat confused. "Where's the blood sample from Ralena Salvatore?"

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Hika-chan: Main problem with quick updates? TYPOS!! ARRRGH!! *Runs around with a mallet trying to squish the little typo demons.*
Cid: *sneaks up behind HC* FUCK!
HC: *jumps in the air startled* What? What's wrong?"
Cid: *grins* no one said it this chapter, I thought it could use a little more color.
HC: *dead pan glare* What the hell is wrong with you?
Cid: *Grins*
HC: Anyway R&R please!!
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AN: "Face it Tiger, you just hit the jackpot." Is the first thing Mary Jane says to Peter Parker when she meets him for the first time in the original comic.
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