Crisis Core: The Novel

Chapter 48 - Darkness

They hiked up the mountain with heavy footfalls, sullen steps marching to their funerals. Tifa trotted out in front to take point, but Sephiroth stopped her with a big hand on her shoulder.

"We aren't in need of a guide today. We're in need of someone to be lost."

And he passed her with a gentle grip into Zack's awaiting arms. Cloud took up the rear guard, eyes shadowed under the visor of an infantry helmet.

As they continued, the forest grew barren. Gnarled trees shot up like daemonic clawed hands stretching in black furls of bark and floral blood. The ground became shaped by tree roots, holding up the extending cliffsides like the half-eaten cores of apples. A tattered rope bridge almost snapped underfoot, a winding trail wove through an old mining cave, until the path broadened at the pinnacle of the mountain—a malefic fortress of industrial techno-horror.

The Nibelheim Reactor, a silo of metallic malevolence encased in sundering steam-stacks, reminiscent of some alien repurposed grain mill. And from the bower of its foundation, Chaos spilled like dark nitrous oxide over the land in sweeping shadows, cascading in rolling waves of pitch to cloak the surrounding world in a luminescent nightmare. Zack and Sephiroth approached the ascending metal stairs up to the entrance in a reserved silence, while Tifa jumped in right next to them.

"I wanna come in too!"

Zack pursed his lips over at Sephiroth.

"Maybe we should bring her with us. It's dangerous out here."

Sephiroth shook his head.

"She'll be fine, as long as she has someone to protect her." He shot a glance at their rear-guard with the slightest grin in his eyes. Cloud shot a wide-eyed glare back at him. The angry flash of a quick hand sign, and Zack's own eyes furled realization.

He was trying to get him to talk to her!

Many things began to take shape in Zack's mind, like maybe Cloud didn't owe anyone money after all. Did he know her? He decided to be a dick and take the hint. Cloud would thank him later.

"Private Dingle! Take care of the lady," he ordered Cloud, whose eyes became vengeful as he begrudgingly stood guard before the stairs, blocking their way after them. Tifa sauntered to the steps, expecting this guy to maybe move or do the Macarena or something, but he stuck his hand out denying her access.

Aghast, she stomped her foot, crossing her arms in a pouting glare.

"Tsh, you better take good care of me then."

The reception corridor of the Reactor was like the loading dock of a space shuttle, netted with wires and aluminum tubing leading down a narrow passage. The cleated floors echoed under their boot falls, a reverberating commotion like banging on sheet metal. Sephiroth had to turn his implant down amid shooting steam vents syphoning their way through lead pipes in deep rolling torrents. The building hum of massive turbine generators intensified to a suffocating roar as they neared the main sealed blast-door, and a few steps away Sephiroth grabbed Zack's arm, stopping him.

"Whatever we find in here, before we go any further, I want you to know that it has been an honor, and a pleasure serving with you."

But Zack threw his arm off him, whirling on Sephiroth in a tirade.

"Aight that's it! You and Angeal! You're both the biggest drama queens on the planet, always think the world is going to end over nothing! You're a couple of old women in a bridge club! It's just an argon gas leak, that's all. We're going to go in, fix it, end the Chaos and go home to our girlfriends. Whatever is behind that door, we're going to blow it wide open, make it so that it can't hurt us anymore. God, what could possibly be behind here that can—"