Now... as previously stated to someone who expressed some interest in taking over this story, I am not dead and Chasers will continue. I've just been a little busy trying to get into college.

I actually have one more chapter for you guys (whoever's left, I say howdy howdy howdy) but if I put it in next, you guys might kill me.

So, as previously said before, Kingdom Hearts is not mine blah blah, blah.

I hope you guys enjoy!

PS: My friend Katy, the FF8 buff, pointed out that Rai in his original incarnation is immune to Thunder-based attacks. ... Uh... whoops? With that in mind, people who have not read this yet, this chapter was edited slightly.

Chapter 12: Doppelganger

I watch as the boy's fingers curl back into his palm, an amused smirk spreading across his face as he looked back up to the teacher. Miss Heartilly glanced at him before running to Xion's side, her boots clacking against the tiles as she made her way over to the passed out girl. Some of the other kids immediately stand up and start to help, but I still couldn't move. I could only sit there underneath that big kid's hand and stare at the kid who had just attacked a younger girl for no reason. Attacked her with fire.

Organization... he'd called Xion an Organization dweeb... what Organization? Why did he hate her so much? I don't understand...

I stare at Seifer's hand, shaking violently as the boy quietly thumps his fist into his other hand in a victorious gesture. What the hell was wrong with this guy? He grins at me, his blue eyes glittering as if he had just won some great victory instead of beating up a little girl. He sighs for a moment before adjusting his beanie again, moving it over his blond fringe again. "Will you get out of my seat now?" He asks me as he adjusts it over his forehead, giving me a bright little smile. Like we were friends.

As if in answer to his words, the big kid who had his hand on my shoulder suddenly lets go of it and looks at me expectantly, giving me a broad smile in return. As his hand drops from my shoulder, I stand up and look at the kid eye to eye. In those brown eyes, this kid... Rai... I could see that he honestly didn't see anything wrong with what he was doing. He didn't think he was a thug, only that he was helping out his friend. I glance over to the blond. Seifer grins at me and moves out of the way for me as I pick up my backpack and notebook from where I had dumped it on the desk.

There's nothing else I can do but step aside.

I look over to Xion as I start walking part Seifer and his friends, each footstep feeling like it weighed a thousand pounds against the tile floor. It should be breaking through the tiles with each step I take but somehow it doesn't. It doesn't and I find myself standing in front of the little girl in Miss Heartilly's arms. Her body is limp against the teacher's, her eyes closed tightly. I could see bruises on the exposed part of her stomach, where her button-down had been burned away. It should have made me feel embarrassed but somehow it didn't. All it did was make me want to cry and my fingers clench into a fist. She had been hurt and it was all my fault. It might have been because I was new or whatever, maybe this was all a hazing ritual done by these clowns, but it started because of me. Xion had been looking out for me and I don't why she was. But she was... a friend. How weird that she was... I look up at the blond kid waiting for me to step aside.

Without even thinking about it, I pull my fist back and slug the fuck in the face.

Seifer tumbles against one of the desks behind him, tipping it over with a loud crash of wood meeting tile and skull meeting wood. I grin for a moment before turning to a gasping Rai and shoving him next, jumping over the desk we had been fighting for possession of to stand at the front of the room. I drop into a half-crouching position, bringing my fists up to my face like I was a freakin' boxer. Hey, boxer I might not be but this could totally work.

The big guy, Rai, immediately goes for me, wrapping that huge hand around my throat and slamming me into a desk as easily as if I weighed no more than a kitten. He looks at Seifer like he was worried about him but he keeps his grip on me, forcing my head backwards onto the edge of the desk. Rai looks at me with rage. "You jerk! How could you, we're on the Disciplinary Committee!" He informs me as his other hand rises behind his shoulder, like he thought I knew what that meant. Oh my god, he's about to punch me. Holy crap, I'm about to die.

I squeeze my eyes shut, quietly saying a few quick prayers to whatever deity that might be listening. Help me, Yevon, help me Odin, hell, help me anyone! I brace myself, biting my lip to keep myself from screaming when the guy actually punches me.

But the fist never comes.

Instead, I feel the pressure of Rai's hand being ripped off of my throat and I hear him yelping in shock as he's dragged backwards. My eyes fly open to see Ven dragging the older guy off of me, despite the fact that Rai had to weigh at least fifty more pounds than him. My jaw drops as Ven easily jumps backwards as soon as Rai whips around, the big guy swinging at him with fists the size of my head. He dodges, weaving in and out of the punches like a professional boxer before pulling his own fist back and shouting out a word.

"Blizzardaga!"

My jaw drops at least to the floor as spikes of ice start forming around my brother's knuckles, blue and jagged. Ice. Ice? My brother... knows how to use magic? When the fist connects with Rai's stomach, the bigger kid lets out a high-pitched "Ooof!" and tumbles headfirst over a desk, shivering violently from the the ice going through his body. Was he bleeding? Oh my god, Ven just shanked someone with ice. Ven eyes him cautiously as he seizures, like he wanted to make sure he stayed down. There's a cold look I've never seen in my brother's eyes as he steps over Rai's body and walks over to Seifer, getting down into a crouch to look the injured kid in the eyes.

Seifer recoils for a moment before glaring at him, baring his teeth in a savage snarl. But his hand remains pressed to his nose, like he was trying to stop the bleeding. Lines of blood keep trickling down though, and he looks like he's in some serious pain. Did I break his nose by accident? Ven keeps staring at him, a wry smile stretching across his lips.

"Who hit him?" He asks the class next, chuckling quietly under his breath. No one says anything. I catch a few people glancing over at me before looking back at Ven in fear, literally backing away from him as quietly as possible. Meanwhile, I keep staring at my brother, unable to believe what I was hearing. There's this strange happiness in his voice, like he wanted to give whoever punched Seifer a bundle of flowers. Instead of answering, my gaze flickers over to Xion and Miss Heartilly. Xion stirs in the teacher's arms, who was muttering some gibberish under her breath to her. A green light appears between her fingers, something familiar... I don't know if magic counts with healing. Does it count?

Ven flicks a stray hair out of his face and grins before winking cockily to Seifer. The kid spits angrily onto the floor and I can see spots of blood in it. "Well, whoever did this to you, I can count them in my friends. Now... Seifer... I'm going to punch you for what you did to Xion. And then I'm going to beat the living tar out of you until you almost die. And then I'll let Rinoa patch you back up. Kay?" When Ven says that last word his face screws up into this cheerful little smile, making me shiver violently. What the hell was wrong with my brother? What was going on?

Seifer just drops his gaze over to Xion, seeming to finally understand what exactly he had done. His mouth opens and closes once, then one more time before he looks up at my brother. Ven keeps smiling at him, pulling his fist back in preparation for the punch he had promised. "I'm sorry." Seifer tells him in a quiet voice and I could tell he meant it. He had gotten too carried away in protecting his turf from the newcomer – I was that intimidating, I guess – and had gotten an innocent bystander hurt.

Ven grins. "So what?" He says in an amused voice, muttering something that sounded like what he had used to summon the electricity. Arcs of blue light form around his knuckles again, obviously about to inflict some serious pain on poor Seifer. Electricity... In response to this, Seifer just closes his eyes and waits to take it. I notice that his ankle is crumpled underneath him at a weird angle, like he had accidentally twisted it when he fell. It hits me like a punch to the face. I broke his ankle. I broke it and now he couldn't move. And since he couldn't move, all he could do was take the blow and whatever more that Ven decided to give him.

All of a sudden, I feel Ven's shirt underneath my fingers as I shove him away from Seifer and my eyes widen in horror just as I realize what I've just done. I see my brother tumble to the ground, the hand of electricity spluttering out when he hits the tiles. His head actually bounces once before he lands onto his side and stays completely still for a little while. A panicked Seifer stares at me before putting his hand onto his ankle, muttering quickly under his breath and making the same green light that Miss Heartilly had made. He was healing himself so he was out of the way when Ven got back up. Holy crap, my own brother was going to kill me now. I don't even know how I was able to move so damn fast.

I tremble violently as Ven's hazy eyes clear and then focus on me with rage. He really was going to kill me now. I drop back into a fighting position, my hands near my face like a boxer. Ven snarls viciously, pulling himself up with one of the desk chairs and then he pulls himself to his feet. And I notice something for the very first time. On Ven's waist, he had a black jacket tied neatly around his hips.

A cold wave of shock flows through my body as I recognize the kid from the Train Station from a day or two ago. Damn was I stupid.

"You're so not my brother," I hear myself saying just as the kid starts making his way to me. Yup, definitely going to die.