Now known as the Racoon Mansion, the ex-Shinra Mansion that stood in Nivelheim was no longer a run-down dilapidated haunted house. The exterior has been cleaned and painted white. A beautiful garden and angel fountain welcomed those who entered the golden steel gates. Inside, the marble floors reflected the brilliance the grand chandelier in the main hall. The walls have been painted white and paintings and sculptures adorned it's side.

Marduke Racoon stood on the balcony overlooking the workers who were setting up the Main Hall for the exhibit that was going to take place in a few days. He wore a black and red robe which barely concealed his muscular structure. He was still in his early thirties, his aristocratic nose and proud chin, gray eyes and his French braided dark brown hair has been raved over by numerous ladies which he just passed by one at a time and left.

"Lord Marduke, should we place the artifacts in their cases?" One worker asked the pouting man.

"Go ahead, but leave my Black Materia in my room, I want to present it to the world myself." with a wave of his hand the worker bowed and Marduke left the Main Hall and entered his room.

It has only been six months since he moved into the mansion in Nivelheim. The air was fresh here, and there was grass and trees. Unlike the bleak scenery he'd find in Midgar's section three, which was almost completely destroyed when meteor attacked.

Marduke opened a small chest and took out a glowing black object, materia. Smiling to himself, he sat down on his bed and stared into the condensed mako energy.

"Black Materia...are you the only one on this earth? What power you have, you are barely the size of my fist and yet you were able to destroy half of Midgar..."the rich man sneered. "Now what will I do with you...of course I can't summon a meteor, nor would I want to destroy the earth" The Black Materia Glowed slightly and Marduke smiled as if an idea had crossed his mind.

"Hmm, I know..."he wishpered. "You can build me an army of monsters. Workers that can dig deeper into the Gaia's crater and find me more artifacts...why, I'll be the richest man in the world..and I can overcome the Shinra empire!" His tone rising from a low whisper to a maniacal laughter.

Immediately, Marduke placed the Black Materia in his pocket and entered a library, he looked around cautiously as he twisted a switch on one of the books. The bookshelf moved to reveal a staircase which led downstairs. He took out a torch and slowly descended the reinforced staircase to the hidden library he discovered when he moven in Nivelheim. It was a treasure trove of knowledge of Materia, the Ancients and Jenova.

When he first found the basement library, there was a room full of coffins and dead bodies, he had them removed and was transformed into a little sitting room and was connected to the library. He also found a two-headed monster there who cowered before him at the sight of the Black Materia, now it stood as the guardian of the library.

"Yin, Yang, good job." Marduke told the monster as he tossed to them a piece of meat. Yin, and Yang gobbled the meat up as they disappeared into the shadows. Marduke opened the library door and set the Black Materia upon the strange apparatus in the connectred laboratory.

"Now if Professor Hojo was able to infuse mako energy with humans and other creatures..maybe I can do the same with the Black Materia." Marduke spoke into a recorder as he fumbled with the switches and wires. "This will be my first experiment...I have only started recently but the books in this library have helped me a great deal. Ah, the Black Materia glows. I am excited, what will happen?"

Suddenly the door was slammed shut and a cold breeze circled around inside the laboratory. Marduke looked around alarmed. He clutched the Black Materia in his hand and prepared to leave the library. Then before him an ghostly figure appeared. At first it was just thick black smoke then two gleaming eyes of blue shone through, slightly revealing the human shaped sillhouette.

"Who are you? What do you want?" Marduke screamed. The ghost smirked sensing the fear of the weary rich man. It circled around him and finally disappeared into the Black Materia leaving an evil laughter echoing in the library. Then there was silence.

Although Marduke did not understand what had just happened, his eyes widened at the sight of the Black Materia's reaction...it was glowing, emitting a black light and vibrating with power. "My first Experiment will be a success..."he whispered thaking the materia into his hand. "Ah, it burns in my hand...the tingle delights me...I can feel his prescence...."

In the silence of the night, Nivelheim was not aware of the black cloud that loomed over their town.

"So, let me get this straight." Tifa said as she slammed her palms on the table . "this Marduke Racoon found the Black Materia and is now going to put it on display...so, why would he invite us to that party?"

Barret, Cid and Red XII looked at each other. They were in the operations room of the Highwind and none of them were too happy with the news they have just received. "It could be a trap." Barret broke the silence.

"Why would they wanna #@$^&^% do that?" Cid yelled. "We just saved their @#%$$% lives from Sephiroth and the @#$%# meteor. What the @#$$%^^; do they want now?!!?!" Even after a year of peace and quiet, the old pilot never learned to control his temper and cursing. But he owned the world's ony airship and they were glad that he agreed to come along.

"Calm down, Cid, we don't know anything yet." Cloud said as he entered the operations room. "All we know is that this Mr. Racoon has the Black Materia, but we don't know if it has enough power to do anything. We also don't know if Racoon knows what the materia is for." Cloud sat down on the other end of the table and put his hands on his head.

"Cloud, are you alright? " Tifa approached him and put her hand on his shoulder. He looked up, his eyes still glowed with mako energy, but the dark circles under them showed that he hasn't been getting enough sleep.

"I'm alright, Tifa. Just worried. I can't help but think that Sephiroth may have something to do with this."

Barret slammed his fist on the table, threatening to break it in half and almost toppling over the coffee-filled cups of the other members. "Damn, Cloud! I thought Sephiroth was already dead! So, what has he got to do with this, again?!!"

Cloud remained silent for a moment. "That's why I came along. I don't know anything. I don't know this Marduke Racoon. I don't know why he invited us to attend the party. I don't even know if he knows who we are. So, I definately don't know how Sephiroth could be involved in this." Cloud stood up, he was getting cranky due to stress and fighting wasn't going to help anything. he knew that everybody on board were as worried and confused as he was.

"I'll be on top, if you need me..I need some air." Cloud left the room and headed for the upper deck. Tifa followed after sighing.

"You really think Sephiroth's involved in this?" Red XII broke the silence of the operation room.

"Probably...Cloud's right, we don't know anything and we'll just have to find it out for ourselves." Cid replied. He lit another cigarette and started puffing. "We all need some rest. If something happens we'll need all the strenght we have."

"I sure hope this doesn't turn into another one of 'em long adventures." Barret sighed and left the room.

Red XIII looked at Cid. "Do you think it would help if we had Yuffie steal the Black Materia and destroy it?"

"How do you destroy that thing? And I don't think Yuffie would give it to us once she has. So, the answer is..." Cid paused and exhaled cigarette smoke in deep thought. "...I don't know."

"Hmmm..." Red XIII growled. "I'm going back to my bunker and sleep. I hope that Cloud is alright." Cid nodded and the half-lion, half-wolf left the operation's room.

"#$%$#% rich-guy. He's playing a very dangerous game. He'll get us all killed." Cid spoke to himself. However he was proud of hit teammate's hopefulness. He remembered theonly one who was filled with positivity during their long battles with Sephiroth and the fallen Shinra Corp. Suddenly, Cid jumped up. "Oh, yeah...the white materia..."