Nanaki's first instinct was to protect the children. He wasn't sure of how to do that, but he knew that he had to.
As the Chaos beast dove towards the group, Nanaki did his best to position himself between this attacker and his charges.
He bared his sharp teeth and let out a threatening growl. He knew that he didn't stand a chance against Chaos, but he still hoped that he could intimidate the monster.
But all of this was unnecessary. Because Rathena wasn't attacking the group. She was diving behind them, towards the way they came in.
Everyone quickly turned to see what the Chaos beast was doing. But it wasn't a pretty site. Rathena (Chaos) was ripping apart a small animal that must have followed the group into the lab.
As Chaos (Rathena) ate the animal, the group hung back, astonishes and sickened at the site. Nanaki even heard Aeris begin to gag.
Rathena must have heard because she turned to face the group, jaws dripping with the creature's blood. Aware that the eyes of the group were on her, she spoke; "What is the matter?" This completely took the group by surprise. Rathena could communicate in Chaos form. It was completely unlike anything that they had seen when Victor transformed. And the voice . . . It was so deep, and almost beast like.
Victor was the first to recover from the initial shock. "You can speak?" He asked.
"Yes. I speak. Don't you?" Rathena rose and walked over to Victor.
The boy shook his head. "No. I can't control Chaos. It had complete control over my mind the last time I transformed. And even that was involuntary."
"Strange. I am the same mind when in this form. Why wouldn't it be the same for you?"
"I think that I may know," Nanaki stated. All eyes gazed at him. "It may be because our young friend here is so young, and only part Chaos. The Chaos beast within him might not be fully developed, and as a self defence, controls it's host. It may become more controllable as he ages."
The group just stared. "So, are you telling us that Victor is being controlled by a monster, and so is Rathena, but Rathena is the monster?"
"I guess that that is a way you could say it. Not the words I would have chosen though." Nanaki almost glared at Ash. But Ash just shrugged the look off.
Rathena took a deep breath and a peaceful, relaxed expression crossed her face. As this happened, she reverted back into her human form. "You never did tell me why you came down here. You did say that you were looking for your parents, but I doubt that you will find them here."
"Yeah," Aeris said. "We know that they're not here."
"So why are you here?"
"We came to find a special materia," Jet spoke up, when nobody else would.
"Ah. But what sort of materia? I know of many kinds that are stored here." Rathena smiled at the people in front of her.
"A materia that can raise the dead," Victor said.
Rathena turned to the boy. "I know of the materia you seek. It was within a room that had many materia."
Nanaki looked at Rathena. A quizzical look grew on his face. "What do you mean by 'was'?" he inquired.
"The room was once full of materia, but they disappeared. They were faulty. Only one materia was properly made. My materia."
"Your materia?" Ash asked. He leaded against a console and looked at if he was about to fall asleep from boredom.
"The scientists were creating new materia. They tried many times, but all their materia was unstable. But they then made a materia from my blood, and it didn't disappear. It was stable."
"Do you know if it actually works?" Alan asked. He seemed very interested.
"I don't know it does. The scientists learned what it did by experimenting. But it hasn't actually been used."
"Why not?"
"Although the experiments showed the materia to be stable, it also showed that it would become unstable after one use."
Victor's expression darkened. This wasn't what he wanted. "Are you sure? Only one use?" Rathena nodded. "Yes. That is what the scientists said."
""How do you know all of this," Nanaki asked. "I didn't think they told their specimens what their other projects were."
"They didn't tell me. I simply overheard their talking in the background while under tranquillisers were affecting me."
"Only while they were affecting you?"
"Yes. When I wasn't under their influence, I was trying to kill them and escape. I almost succeeded once."
"Hmm. Interesting." Nanaki paused.
"Enough chit chat," Ash chimed in from the sidelines. "Let's just get the materia and go."
"Yeah. I think he's right," Aeris admitted. "It will be dark soon so we should head back to camp."
"Agreed. But first," Nanaki said turning to Rathena, "Would you lead us to the materia?"
"It would be my honour."
Rathena led the group out of the lab, and down the hall for a short ways. There was no conversation during the walk. And the only sounds were of the echoing of the steps through the long hallway. The silence was almost eerie.
Finally they stopped at a door. It looked like every other door and Aeris couldn't tell how Rathena differentiated between all of the doors. But regardless, this did appear to be the door.
Rathena pushed into the room and stopped in front of a small display case. The group crowded around, and all looked at it's content's.
The sight took all their breath's away.