The Second Incarnation Part 14
Kissing Cousins?
By Shelly Ichishita
Lucretia lifted her head up from her hands. She stared at the glass tubes with red rimmed eyes. If only she could break them free. Hojo's voice rang out in her head. "You want to free him, my wife?"
She gasped, "don't call me that! Don't you ever call me that you monster!" Vincent twisted and pushed himself against the glass.
"Are you afraid your precious Valentine will hear? Don't worry, I gave him enough nightmare gas to put him to sleep for days. I really am grateful to you for finding it. I'm glad that you finally decided to cooperate; it'll make it much easier on your love."
Lucretia walked to the tubes and leaned her forehead on the cold glass. "Don't presume anything Hojo. I will find a way to kill you."
Hojo laughed, "you've been promising that since you were six my sweet cousin. You really must come up with something new." Lucretia snarled.
Reeve's eyes popped open. Cousins? Goddamn that's disgusting, he thought. The liquid stung his eyes but he kept them on Lucretia.
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The hole that Elena made in the wall lead directly into the air conditioning shaft. Barret could feel the metal pressing against his sides. It was a tight squeeze. He continued forward on his hands and knees. The gray metal ahead was streaked with blood. Yuffie groaned, "that couldn't have all come from Nia, right?"
"I hope not," Barret said. "I sure hope not." He came to a sudden stop; Yuffie collided with him and banged her head on the top of the shaft. "The blood trail ends here," he indicated the grate to the right. His thick fingers pried at the grate.
Yuffie nudged his shoulder, "move aside." Barret sniffed and shuffled further down the shaft. Yuffie started to work on the grate. It loosened and she placed it on the side. "I don't see anything..." she leaned further out of the opening. "I can see a door now. There are three more mechanical spider things. I don't think we can get past them, do you want to chance it?"
"What the hell." Barret linked his lighting materia to his elemental attack materia. "Let's kick some ass."
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Cloud winced as his heel hit the dirty, cracked floor. It sounded so loud. He tried to push everything out of his mind. His hands involuntarily reached for his head but he kept on moving. His mako enhanced eyesight blurred and he shook his head. "Are you alright?" he heard Tifa ask. Her voice sounded fuzzy, almost as if she was talking underwater. Cloud opened his mouth to answer, but the words were cut off when his face met the floor.
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"I know what's different about the place!" Red exclaimed. "There are more cables and the doorways are larger." He ran to catch up to Cid and Shera.
"You're right," Shera said. "And there aren't any bodies around. There had to have been some people up here and what about the monsters?"
"Who gives a shit?" Cid stopped in his tracks. "It's been three hours, we'd better go back and meet the others before they come chasing after us." His face brightened, "maybe the others found them already."
"I hope so but it's only been two hours and seventeen minutes. We have plenty of time to search. Let's start with that hallway." Shera started for the hallway.
"What the hell was I thinking when I let her come?" Cid spat off to his side.
"I doubt that you could have stopped her." Red replied as he ran after Shera.
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