After each party had obtained at least one key, they all headed back to the main entrance to discuss the next move.
"Well, we now have the Light, Dark, Mind, Heart, and Life Keys," Delita said, "Any ideas where to go next, besides that Clock Tower I mentioned, which we haven't exactly found a way to get into."
Seifer spoke up, "The hallway we went to seemed to only lead to the lower main hall by the wine cellar, any other routes were collapsed."
"There was a door that lead somewhere in the Gallery, but we decided to let you know before we went over there." Agrias mentioned.
"So in order to get to the other half of the castle we have to go through the gallery, somehow I feel like we're being herded." Delita moaned.
The party marched single file up the spiral staircase into the gallery, strange, but now every single painting was blank except for the main, now named painting. But now this was different, instead of a man standing in a green garden, a portrait of Ultimecia hung in its place.
"Ewww, tacky outfit." Aeris commented.
"Cloud, are you sure there was only one door in here," Delita asked.
"Yeah, why do you ask?"
"Because now I see two, one where you said, and one in the upper balcony."
"That's not funny," Agrias said, "I was up there and I didn't see any type of door there."
"I think she's playing with our minds." Ramza mumbled.
"If that's true," Beowulf said, "She might have been hiding more than just these doors, we need a party to check the main hall."
"Well," Delita sighed, "I guess we'll each go find a door, we'll check the upper balcony door, if nothing turns up we'll be looking in the main hall."
Beowulf's and Cloud's party headed through the lower door, only to find two more doors and a strange stone fountain. One appeared to be locked, while the other was being locked shut by a water pressure valve.
"I think I see found the switch, guys," Teta said as she pulled it open, it appeared as though all the water drained out of the fountain, and that seemed to open up the door.
"We'll go in, hopefully we won't get locked in here."
As Beowulf stepped in, sword in hand, he saw what appeared to be a skeleton on a torture device, "No time to find out what happened to him." Then he noticed a key, nothing like the keys they had been collecting, but still it might be useful. But before he could even consider its use, the steel door that they had opened with the valve slammed shut on them.
"Great, locked in here with Mr. Personality."
"i DoN't tHiNk hE's tHe OnE YoU wAnT To wOrRy AbOuT."
Beowulf turned around to find a massive Red Iron Giant, swinging his huge sword.
Sephiroth instinctively spun on his feet and performed a broad cleave with the Masamune.
"sOrRy, wRoNg NuMbEr, pLeAsE tRy aGaIn." The beast joked. It appeared as though there wasn't even a scratch on the fiend.
"Did anyone ever tell you, that your jokes SUCK!" Beowulf extended his arm, and swung his new sword, Excalibur II, biting deeply into the monster's armor.
Reis, seeing that there was no room to jump, ran full speed into the monster, impaling it with her spear.
"CaN I hElP yOu, YoUnG lAdY?" the beast grabbed her and hurled her across the room, slamming her into the two men.
In a heap, the party began to discuss some strategy.
"Okay, what exactly did WE do wrong here?" Beowulf asked.
"Maybe you just didn't do it with style," Teta winked at Beowulf, "Hey, Goliath, when was the last time you polished your armor, I'll be that it's red because of rust!"
"hEy zOmBiE gIrL, i jUsT hApPeN tO tHiNk oF rEd aS mY CoLoR So sHuT uP!" The beast came running full speed at her, but was stopped dead in its tracks as a burst of black energy engulfed it and seemed to crush it with tremendous force.
"HeY oW! i wAs oNlY KiDdInG aBoUt tHe ZoMbIe pArT, CoMe oN!"
"Sorry, but you just got disconnected!" Teta waved her hands and another jolt of Demi crushed the Giant to pieces.
"THAT IS WHAT A BLACK MAGE IS FOR! NEVER FORGET IT!" she yelled.
As she picked up the Strength Key, she twirled it around her finger, threw it up in the air, and it neatly dropped into her carrying sack.
Using the key they found on the skeleton, they managed to unlock the steel door, only to find three seriously bored warriors sitting around waiting for them to get back out.
"What the heck happened in there?" Cloud asked.
"We got the Strength Key from a total idiot, that's what!" Teta flounced her cape and stepped out of the cellar.
"What's up with her?" Agrias asked.
"Don't ask…just, don't ask." Beowulf sighed.
"Well," Cloud said, "the door over here is locked, and I don't see any way of opening it, not even my Ultima could cut through that."
"I wonder what the others are doing." Aeris wondered, "Probably something exciting."
"Dear god! Is this boring!" Seifer moaned. "All we've done around here is walk down hallway to hallway, sure we fought Catoblepas, but he was cake, no challenge! Come on! Let's just get out of here and make our own doors!"
"Will you shut up Seifer! So what if this is a dead-end? We can't overlook anything!" Zidane was the only one who had the guts at the moment to tell Seifer to be quiet. In fact, the whole party was getting rather edgy lately. And frustrating hallways didn't help.
"Well, since the only place this lead to was a dead elevator, I say we back track to the main hall, where everyone else is."
Delita began to feel somewhat weary of this old castle, "Maybe they found something."
As the four parties marched back out to the main hall, the only party that seemed to have made progress was Beowulf's. They had managed to pick up the old Strength Key, so that brightened some members' spirits.
"There's got to be a way into that old Clock Tower….," Delita thought aloud, "We'll have to check the main hall again, in the meantime, Beowulf, you and Cloud get your groups together, check the hallway Seifer was in, perhaps there's something they missed."
Both sets of parties then went their own separate ways, Delita and Seifer's groups marched up the front steps to the main hall to find....a door?
"Hmm, it seems we've been tricked again," Ramza said, "This door was never here before."
"She's leading us into some sort of trap, I think," Seifer said.
"We'll this whole place is a trap so the point is moot right now." Zidane wryly remarked.
After opening the massive doors, the two groups found themselves in what appeared to be a courtyard, with a fountain statuette. Unbeknownst to them, this statue was the exact twin of the one near the prison/armory that Beowulf had found. A sign on the fountain read:
"If you wish to find death, look to the light, it falls into the deep, and then you must give it to my brother."
"Odd, it talks about Death, something tells me, that's one of the missing keys, but what does it mean?" Delita said.
"Look up," Seifer said, "At the top of the fountain, there seems to be a light shining out of the top…"
Looking up, the parties saw a rickety old bridge, with something shining on it, but the bridge was attached to the top of the Clock tower, in what appeared to be an inaccessible area.
"Maybe we're getting close," Delita said, "I think one of our groups should stay here just in case one group needs to find their way back here."
"Oh no, you're not handing my group that job!" Seifer said, "you want to wait, you wait, I wanna kick some monster butt!"
"Alright," Delita said crossing his arms, "We'll wait for you, if you find a way to that key, let us know."
Dealing with Seifer at this point was no pleasure, but at least he was capable of leading his own party.
Opening the next door they found what appeared to be part of an old Cathedral, with an Organ and Stain-Glass Windows. Beside that, a large set of stairs.
"Jackpot," Seifer grinned, "This should lead to the Clock Tower."
Marching up the steps, he found a stone spiraling staircase, a massive swinging bell, and the noise of ticking.
"Well, nothing left to do but go up, I guess," Zidane said.
Marching up the staircase was very time consuming, but worth it, according to Seifer, he just couldn't wait to cut off Ultimecia's head.
As they got eye level with the massive swinging bell, they noticed a large crack in the wall beside it, but there was nothing there but a small platform, no way to get across.
"Something might be there, you know." Garnet said.
"Yeah well, we're gonna go up to the top of the Clock Tower First, it's too risky, for all we know that's just a hole in the wall and a huge drop on the other end."
"Okay, but..." Garnet was hesitant to agree with Seifer, but, he was leader.
As they reached the top, what appeared to be massive gears and parts of an old tower clock clicked and ground in sync with each other. Nothing out of the ordinary, except a small door that opened to the outside of the Clock.
Sure enough, they found the connection to the rickety old bridge, and the little shiny object they'd stared at from below was a key.
Looking down, they noticed that even though they should be able to see Delita's group, the air was covered in fog, making nothing except part of the bridge visible, where it lead to was a mystery.
"Well, I don't know about you, but I'm gonna go get that key!" Seifer said, quickly running across.
"No! Don't run, this bridge shakes when you run! You going to----!" Garnet cried out, but it was too late, Seifer had run the key right off the bridge and into the grey fog.
"Aww, Crap!" Seifer slapped his forehead, "Now we have to go all the way back down and get it!"
"Well," Zidane shrugged, "Might as well check that stupid crack in the wall Garnet was talking about."
Meanwhile, Delita, Alma, and Ramza were taking a pleasant rest near the fountain in the courtyard, when all of a sudden, Delita heard a little 'Plipp!' and looked in the fountain.
"Hey guys! Guess what I just found! A key!"
"Yeah, but," Ramza asked, "What's it for?"
"I think I know, remember the riddle on the fountain?" Alma said, "It said the light would fall in the deep, the light's the key to finding the death key, but it said to give it to his brother? That I'm not so sure about."
"Well I am!" said a familiar voice, everyone turned to face Beowulf and Cloud, parties in tow.
"Hey! How'd you find us!" Ramza asked.
"Well, the hall still lead back into the main hall, and that door was there all of a sudden, so we just walked right in."
"So what about it? What do you know?" Delita asked, almost ecstatic.
"This fountain's a mirror image of the one we found near the prison/armory, I think that's the armory key."
Sure enough as the parties looked at the key, it had a sword and shield embossed on its design.
"I think that since my party found that door, I think we should be allowed to unlock it." Cloud said, decisively.
"I agree," Delita said, "But make sure they're prepared, take as many items as you need with you, you are getting the Death Key after all."
"Done." Cloud said.
Giving Cloud the key, Delita said, "Good luck."
Cloud, Aeris, and Agrias strode away, leaving two parties wondering about how Seifer was doing.
