(Be advised, some scenes in this chapter are a bit 'extreme'. I have 'censored' my descriptions but the content is still there. Not for those easily offset by violence and descriptions of torture)

Grinding metal and shaking materials, creaking wood and a crunching set of bars, an elevator in the dark descended down a very old and unused shaft. Near the back of the facility as called, an old elevator system indeed stood. An old box realistically of wood with metal parts atop, then a cage of steel to open and close off access. Fairly large, enough for a good few dozen people, it held only five now as it moved down.

Elise hung to the back with arms crossed close, hair drooping before her face. Sora and Caldori hung near the right, Rusty towards the front, and Britt the left. All in all they stood mostly ready to move, all except for Elise. The rickety cage shook like a truck hitting a bump on the road, only a short jolt but soon followed by others.

In just a few minutes, the old elevator came out of the shaft, now descending into an open area. All of them looked ahead, light flowing over them. Before the elevator stood walls of metal and tile. A final jolt came as it hit the bottom, Rusty quick to throw the cage open.

“Coms probably aren’t going to work down here,” Britt muttered stepping forward behind Rusty, the two of them being the first to exit out onto the tile, their steps echoing.

“We’ll just have to be careful then,” Elise replied, arms lowering as she moved forward behind Sora and Caldori, soon passing ahead of them.

“There’s a hatch up ahead,” Rusty murmured, eyes aglow, “Looks like a vault door. Only- looks like it’s reversed.”

“Reversed?”

“Yeah Callie, reversed. I can see it clear as friggen day, they put the door in backwards. I see the mechanisms to open that thing from the inside on our side.”

“Strange. Maybe they did it that way to lock any infiltrators inside?” Sora questioned.

“More likely to keep whatever is already on the inside ON the inside,” Britt finished.

“That’s clearly where we have to go,” Elise mumbled, “Lets hop to it.”

In no time at all, the vault door groaned open, swinging slow as the entire group pushed. Heavy, unlocked, and just in the way- that is what it was at that point. It screeched as it opened, finally ceasing when pushed far enough open for the group to slip out of into another set of halls. White, lit, filled with crates and mechanisms to move said crates.

Doors stood scattered throughout the hall further ahead with many branching paths, windows even visible to peer into several of the rooms.

“I’d call this the main facility,” Caldori mumbled.

“Without a doubt.”

“Hey get down!”

The group ducked, flying behind several crates as a door swung open. Two in lab coats exited, eyes aglow like Ghouls, pushing a single wheelchair. In the chair sat a woman, bound in a straight jacket, eyes droopy, head lopsided. An IV ran straight into her arm, a strange orange liquid in the back attacked to a pole connected to the chair.

The two Ghouls, smiling, moved on down the hall, slow, one pushing, the other writing words down on a clipboard. As they moved on, their footsteps fading out, the group all stood. They came close together, their own steps echoing off the halls, then proceeded. Elise at the head and the two brothers to the rear, Caldori at the middle with Sora.

Sora broke from the group, racing towards the first window.

“Hey- Sora, don’t break formation! They could see you if they’re in those” Rusty hissed.

“It’s one way glass, don’t worry,” Britt mumbled.

“Calm da- whoa, what the absolute fuck? This room is full of corpses!”

The group joined him in no time at all, every one of them peering in. Indeed, the room had corpses strung about everywhere. Body parts from organs on ice and floating in liquid, to limbs hanging by hooks, corpses sewn heavily together in a mishmash of pieces. To the far back was a torso of half darker skin low, breasts and a woman’s top in a lighter color, one wolf-like man right arm, and a head with a face sewn together with parts from at least three different faces.

“Survey says we found where they assemble their Undead, or at least one location,” Rusty growled.

“So they can just use any body parts and sew them together?” Elise questioned.

“Yeah,” Caldori said with a nod, “Like you heard before, they can just do that. The spells they use to resurrect them does some partial healing and will fully attach whatever is sewn on, so long as it somewhat connects. There wouldn’t be some eight armed wolf since that isn’t natural- but they can combine different species like Zaherian and Drachen if they want to.”

“Hey guys-” Sora called, “Weapons room right next door.”

Elise stepped over, head at an angle to peer in as she walked up on the window. Wall to wall guns, grenades, RPG’s, the works. It looked like a full armory in a room of about thirty meters in length. Racks of guns and daggers, spears, axes. In the back there was even body armor, the same used by the group Elise faced off against prior.

“Oi, they actually have a room back here to manufacture weapons too!” Rusty called out as he came upon another window.

Elise carried forward, passing by another door and reaching another window. Her movement halted at once as she peered inside the well-lit room. Inside, several gurneys with people lying down upon, brown straps securing arms and legs and torsos, even heads on some. More IVs with the orange liquid hung near, flowing right into their bodies.

“GRAAAAAAAAAAAAA-!!!”

She jumped back, head shooting to her left. Her eyes peered further down the hall whilst the others also turned their attention. More screaming came from two doors and two windows ahead on the left side. Slowly Elise crept along, her left arm held back and her hand flexed open.

Before long a view of what was inside became clear. More screaming, screaming from people. Her eyes quivered. Several in lab coats moved around a dozen in chairs who were strapped, more IVs hooked into them- only it was not the same liquid. In clear text, it was written Warning- Toxic Mateiral- Cyanide 9.5L.

Elise stumbled backwards, eyes continuing to shake, her breath quickening. The screams ramped up as two Ghouls wheeled in with two more wheelchairs. One Ghoul stood at the foot of one gurney with a clipboard, scribbling away with a smile on her face. The one in said gurney screamed only for a bit longer before going silent- eyes sunk in, mouth hung open, body tensing and then releasing.

“What in the absolute fuck is this?!” Rusty roared from behind Elise.

“Wh-wha-what-” Caldori shook.

“Bastards-!” Elise hissed, immediately grabbing for Sephiroth.

A hand grabbed her wrist from behind, her head and body swinging around to face Britt. His own eyes were two-thirds closed, yet dead locked on Elise as he held her. His own head then shook, “Don’t. You and Rusty can’t.”

“Why?! Give me one reason not to go in there and save those people!”

“They’re already dead… and it could blow the mission. I don’t like it any more than you but-”

More wailing screams came from up ahead as the lights flickered several times in a span of four seconds. A distinct brrrrrrrz could be heard as well from another room up ahead. Sora approached said window, peering in. All at once he flew back and landed on the group, shaken, breathing heavily.

“Sora, what happened?!”

“Th-th-they’re doing the people in there- but not just- I mean-”

“Speak clearly!”

“Keep your damn voice down Rusty-” Britt hissed.

“Th-they’re electrocuting people in there to the point where they char and burn-” Sora finally choked out.

Caldori stepped away from yet another window, “I see drawn and quartering here, and racks. Blood everywhere but no one inside right now.”

“What the hell is this place?” Sora whimpered.

A gun shot could be heard from further ahead, heavily muffled but still loud enough due to the halls. This time it was Rusty who approached another set of windows, looking in. Blood spattered the glass as a human crashed into it. A hole was present, large and spattered where a bullet had blown through. Slowly the human slid down the glass, blood gushing out of their nose.

Rusty looked down, legitimately horrified, then looked ahead. A Ghoul moved behind another human with gun in hand. It didn’t take long, the gun was then placed to the back of the human’s head and the triggered pulled. Another pop and another splurt of blood flew everywhere as the human fell over. Towards the left side of that room was another Ghoul with a clipboard, writing everything down with a smile.

Rusty stepped away, watching as two other Ghouls kicked the executed humans into a pile.

“What the absolute ever loving fuck is this shit?!” Rusty spat out amidst the screams from other rooms.

“And you want me to just ignore this?!” Elise hissed, hand still on her katana.

“For the time being! Look, we’re all pissed, even Rusty whom you never get along with is pissed. For now we just have to-”

A door shut just behind, followed by the chatter of voices.

“Yeah and so I was thinking we report that Subject 2289-05143-H lasted shorter than 2289-05143-N.”

“Well of course. H was a little girly girl man baby and we all know that- eh?”

Both Ghouls stopped in place, staring ahead. Elise slightly turned, viewing them at a gap of about five meters. All the rest turned round as Britt released Elise.

Silence…

“Uh-” one Ghoul began.

The shing of an unsheathed sword came next as the two backed away, followed by a mad dash of foot steps. Elise shot forward, sword half drawn ready to be swung. Both Ghouls backed up, one heading for a button on the wall as the other reached into their coat pocket. The first Ghoul drew a pistol, silver and rather old fashion in appearance, aiming it out.

In the next instance blood flew across the ground and onto the walls, a thump following as fabric drifted. The first Ghoul yelled out, left hand grabbing where their right hand had been, which now laid upon the floor. The second Ghoul stumbled back as a louder thud lit up the hall, their whole arm sliced clean off.

“GYAHHHH!” the Ghoul began, stopping as Elise’s blade flew into their mouth.

The other Ghoul simply fell over, a boot slamming onto their throat, held down by Elise. One at sword point to the back of their throat, the other at stomp point unable to speak hardly due to the pressure. Both were pinned.

“You two are going to tell me everything I want to know or so help me, I will peal you both like bananas!” she spat, eyes of fire moving from the one on the ground to the one with the sword in its mouth.

“G-g-go to hell-” the one on the ground choked.

Blood sprayed again and immediately something had begun to roll across the floor. The second Ghouls’ eyes went huge, staring as his partner’s head rolled away. A blade of light stuck out from Elise’s heel, much like a clever, having decapitated in an instant. Her eyes went from the now-dead Ghoul back to the one with Sephiroth in their mouth, the blade slowly pulling out.

“Alright, lets try that again, tell me what I want to know- NOW!”

“Damn,” Rusty murmured from behind, the others all collecting in observation.

“Eh- it’s, it’s a research lab. We’re trying to find the best candidates with parts for our new Undead- the Dires,” the Ghoul said with a quiver.

“Dires?”

“Y-yeah yeah, super zombies. Heh heh, super zombies that will wipe you and your friends clear off the-”

Sephiroth was placed to the Ghoul’s throat, a bit of blood trickling as the sharp edge cut in, “Rephrase that-”

“EEP- alright alright. We’re trying to make new Undead capable of replacing a platoon of normal Undead easily- super skilled, strong, even intelligent. For them we need the best material. We test our subjects to see if they are worthy. Those that aren’t we execute if they don’t die in our experiments. Listen- let me live, alright? I’m defenseless. Heh heh- you wouldn’t kill me right? I can do you no har-”

Blood, again, spattered the wall and the floor behind, followed by another thud and a roll. A splotch of blood flew out and splattered across Elise’s left cheek, her eyes cold as she stared forward. The Ghoul’s body collapsed backwards, crashing with a thud.

“I have no mercy for your type, even if you were sincere you bastard,” she growled, lowering Sephiroth.

Britt looked on, jaw hung, eyes aflutter. Beside him were Caldori and Sora, both of whom looked onward horrified. Rusty even stood back, shock flooding his face; though quickly that expression went from hung to tight and smirking, “Heh… even you can be cold when given a reason eh? Amusing.”

Elise turned, blood still dripping from her katana and still upon her face, “Come on. We have a job to do.”