"Is everybody alright?" Nanaki asked the group. He received nods from the other's. But his attention turned to the bite mark on Aeris' arm. He gave her a questioning look.

"It's nothing," she said. "Just a scratch. See? It's stopped bleeding already." Although Nanaki nodded, the look of worry on his face didn't vanish. But he turned back to the others anyway.

"This is probably going to be nothing compared to what we will find once we arrive at Midgar. I'm sure that there will be many more monsters, and they will be much stronger then these. If anybody still wishes to go back to camp, it's not too late."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence, but I'm sure we will be fine." Ash's voice was as overconfident and cocky as ever.

Nanaki looked at Ash and the others before nodding. "Then we shall continue."

As they resumed their march towards the destroyed Midgar, Jet noticed at strange look beginning to appear on Victor's face. "You ok?" Jet asked the boy.

Victor looked up at Jet. But he didn't say anything. Maybe the kid didn't want to talk. Jet knew how that felt, so he decided not to press the subject.

But as they walked in silence, he began to feel edgy for some reason. He threw another glance in Victor's direction, and was startled at how strange the expression on boy's face had become.

"Hey," he said. "Are you sick or something?"

Victor looked at Jet, and Jet could visibly see the boy trying to hide his expression. After a bit he succeeded. "I'm fine," was all he said.

Because Jet still didn't want to press, he decided to remain silent until they reached Midgar. He sighed, and sped up his pace a bit. They were almost there.

Victor knew that something was strange at Midgar. He couldn't tell weather it was good or bad, but he could tell that there was something there. It was almost as if it was calling him. Or perhaps it was calling something inside of him.

Resisting the urge to run in the direction of the feeling, he kept his pace. He knew that he would find its source soon enough. He could only tell that it was coming from within Midgar.

Victor kept this to himself as they approached the entrance to the slum's. They entered and continued walking. Although everyone was taking in all the sites of this once proud city, Victor remained focused on the source of his feeling.

It was growing stronger with every step, and he knew that for some reason they had to find it. He couldn't tell why, only that he had to.

The tiny group stopped when they reached the crumbling ShinRa building. But they couldn't enter, because a pile of building rubble was blocking the entrance. "What are we going to do now?" Ash asked in a cranky voice.

"We get in," Victor said.

"Sure thing. But only one problem," Ash said. His voice dripping with sarcasm. "There's no way to get inside."

Victor didn't say anything. He walked around to the side of the building. The other's followed. When the urging felt greatly increased, he felt around that spot in the wall. Eventually his search rewarded him with the secret entrance opening up.

The group just looked at the opening and Victor. Before anybody could say anything though, the boy stepped into the darkness. Victor felt something stir inside of him. If it had been bad while he was outside, it was almost uncontrollable inside.

He strangely mused that it was almost like a dog following a sent; and the sent was stronger inside this building, and everything seemed saturated in it.

Intent on finding the source of these strange feelings, he continued onward into the darkness.

Aeris thought that Victor sure was acting strange. He seemed very determined to find what they were looking for. And there was something strange about the way he knew that there was a secret entrance.

That bugged her more than anything did. If he had lived by Lucrecia's Falls his entire life, how did he know his way around this ruined ShinRa building?

"Victor," Aeris said as she approached the boy, who had begun to lead the group. "How did you know about that secret entrance?"

The boy shrugged. "I didn't know about it."

"Then how did you find it so quickly? I mean, it was as if you went directly to that entrance as if you knew that it was there?"

Victor turned his head and stared at Aeris. "If you're trying to suggest that I have been here before, I haven't. And I'm not sure how I found that door. I just found it."

An edge seemed to be growing into Victor’s voice, so Aeris decided not to pry any further. But she still found it uncanny that the boy seemed to know exactly where to go.

After a long walk in silence, and going down a considerable number of stairs, the group stopped in front of a dead end.

"Looks like you don't know where you're going, after all," Ash mocked. Aeris was about to protest, but the look Victor gave Ash was enough to silence him.

Victor reached up and felt along the tiled wall. Nanaki approached Victor with a puzzled expression on his face. "What are you doing?" he asked the boy.

Victor didn't say anything. Instead, he pushed something on the wall, and the wall slid back revealing a secret elevator door.

Aeris' first though was that because Midgar was destroyed, the elevator would have no power. But she was wrong. The doors slid open as Victor approached them. Aeris let out a small gasp as the light coming out of the elevator blinded them. Up until then, they had used dim flashlights. Now, a light of this intensity blinded them momentarily.

However, when their eyes adjusted to the new lighting, they followed Victor into the elevator. There were no buttons though. Only what appeared to be a sensor. Victor waved his hand over it, and it started beeping.

**Unauthorised use of project elevator. Unrecognised persons aboard elevator. * * The voice was fairly high and whiny, but distinctly a man's voice, nonetheless. **Unauthorised use of project elevator. Unrecognised persons aboard elevator. **

Although the group was startled by the sudden alarm, Nanaki appeared to hold some sort of resentment towards the voice.

"What's wrong Nanaki," Aeris asked, letting her concern drip into her voice.

The red beast just looked at the sensor. "I know that voice. It is an evil voice. It is the voice of Hojo."

"Hojo? That demented mad scientist that used to work for ShinRa?" Jet asked.

Ash smirked. "Well obviously he worked for ShinRa. If he didn't, why would he have some sort of secret elevator, which probably leads to a lab, in a ShinRa building?"

Jet scowled at Ash. "Well obviously you should shut up," Jet said with a bit of an edge in his voice.

"Enough," Nanaki growled. "I believe that our main concern should be to get down to where this elevator goes."

"And could somebody make that voice stop," Aeris added. She felt a headache coming on.

To her, and everyone's surprise, Ash pulled out a pocketknife, pried the cover off the sensor, and fiddled around the insides for a minute. Finally, the voice simply stopped.

"How'd you do that?" Nanaki asked.

Ash shrugged. "My parents let me learn a bit of electronics. You’ll also be sruprised what a person could learn from a parents' example," Ash said smiling.

"For some reason, I don't think I want to know about your parents' example," Aeris muttered while rolling her eyes. Ash just smiled.

"Let's just focus on the problem in front of us right now," Nanaki said in his ever-calm voice. He then turned to Ash. "Would you be able to override the security system?"

Ash frowned. "I think so," he said. He bent back over to work with the insides of the device. It only took a few minutes of digging before Ash found the proper wires. "I've almost got it,” he announced into the deathly quiet elevator.

Aeris sighed. They had been walking for a few hours, and she was grateful for the rest. Even if it was spent in an elevator that had a musty smell to it.

Suddenly Ash yelped as sparks flew from the panel. He jumped back, and landed solidly on his butt. Simultaneously, the elevator doors closed, and Aeris got the sensation that she was moving.

"I did it," Ash announced. His face was covered in an expression that matched that of his father's cocky expression of self-satisfaction.

Aeris moaned and decided to leave the subject alone. She judged that because of the speed of the elevator, they had a long way to go down. So she decided to just settle in for the wait, while she listened to the gentle hum of the elevator.

But it wasn't much of a wait. Maybe it was only 25 or 30 floors, Aeris thought. It didn't really matter though. They were about to enter a hidden lab.

And apparently this Hojo didn't want many people to know about it. So who knew what would be outside of this elevator when it opened.

Aeris was the first to step out of the elevator when it's doors slid opened. She took one step out and immediately proceeded to let out a scream.

Chapter 9