~~~

For a moment there seemed to be a hint of fear in his eyes, but it washed away with any other emotion Seifer was capable of showing. Instead, his face was blank as his eyes moved from the knife to Squall and then back again.

" I can explain," Squall said slowly although he didn't know why he bothered. Seifer was always the type to jump to conclusions, not listening to anyone. And he would especially let this trait overcome anything logical. But then again, the setting Squall was in at the moment obviously pointed to one thing. Even Squall himself knew what was going through Seifer's head.

Squall took a step towards the older man, but Seifer took a step back. His chest was rising and falling at an alarming rate and Squall could see that he was sweating as well. They locked eyes for a moment, Squall wishing to know what was Seifer's next move. Then it happened so fast.

He felt as if the left side of his head had been smashed in and the pain was unbearable. A faded image of Zell looking smug and then darkness, which welcomed him.

~~~

" I can't believe it," Quistis whispered. " There has to be some mistake."

" Just stop it," Zell grumbled, standing up from the chair he was sitting on. " You're wasting your time."

Deciding not to respond, Quistis lifted up the test tube and gazed at it through the artificial light. She had been denying what had happened for five hours, and it sickened her how everyone in Balamb Garden had turned against their commander in the event of a few minutes. Squall was taken away and locked in the newly made cell in the B-level of Garden after Seifer had found a knife covered in blood in Squall's room. It had Squall's fingerprints on it but the evidence still never added up. Quistis had proposed to Cid that she be allowed to review the situation at hand before any sentence was carried out. And here she was, in the small and rarely used lab.

" The results should be ready shortly," Quistis said after removing the blood off the knife successfully.

Zell yawned and walked towards Quistis. He picked up a vile of blood, then Quistis snatched it away angrily.

" This is all I have, now please don't touch anything. If my suspicions are correct, then Squall may not be the killer after all." Quistis said, placing the vile back.

" I don't know what you expect to find after seeing whose blood was on the knife."

" You said yourself that Squall had many cuts on himself. I'm guessing that he cuts himself, although I will admit that I don't know why-"

" His cuts were from Fujin, even the infirmary doctor said so. Self defence." Zell cut in.

Quistis narrowed her eyes.

" Very supportive, aren't you?"

Zell took a step back, then shook his head.

" I just don't want you to get your hopes up."

A small buzzer went off and Quistis jumped up from her chair, running towards the computer.

" I was right!" She cried out. Zell ran over to where she was and read the results on the computer.

" The blood is Squall's," He said in a flat voice. " So the guy cuts himself?"

The woman frowned as she read over more of the results.

" This doesn't make any sense...it's showing that in his blood there's also Hexadragon venom. That can kill a normal human being."

She got up from her leaning position and put her hand to her head. None of this was making sense. Hexadragon venom, Squall's cuts and...the infirmary doctor. This had all been happening since he had arrived at Garden. She looked at Zell.

" Did you receive the same treatment as Squall did for your virus?" Quistis asked.

" Yeah...why?"

" I'm just asking."

Nothing was any clearer and she was beginning to lose hope. Perhaps Squall did commit the murders--but for what purpose? He had nothing against any of them as far as she knew. Then why didn't he kill Seifer when he found the knife? There was the possibility that Zell had arrived just before Squall could do so, but he never did put up a fight.

And if the murder weapon was a knife, why on each of the victims there were two small yet almost ripped open holes? How could such small wounds cause them to die of blood loss? Something seemed to scream out the answer but if only she could grasp it. Then the remembrance of a long ago legend. Pure myth, but people used to talk about creatures that Hyne had placed on earth shortly after the monsters and before the humans. Things that would survive by drinking the blood of other beings. Vampires, she believed they were called. There was no such evidence pointing to these creatures being real but after everything that had happened recently, she didn't push the thought completely out of her mind. Especially since she was forgetting a piece of the legend that seemed vital. That seemed to be the missing piece.

" Zell," She whispered, as if afraid that someone would hear them. " I have a theory."

She told what she had figured out so far to him and after hearing her thoughts, he made a face.

" That's crazy," He said, leaning back in a chair next to Quistis. " Vampires? I'm sure that Cid will take that literally."

" I'm serious, Zell!" She shouted. Quistis got up and hovered over Zell, continuing to shout.

" This makes absolutely no sense, I'm aware of that! But nothing else fits the puzzle. The complete blood loss, the wounds...it all makes sense!"

" So you're saying that Squall is the vampire?" Zell said, skeptical.

" Perhaps he is but...I need more evidence to back this up."

She was calm now although her face was flustered. What was bothering her now was not whether Squall was innocent or not, it was how calm Zell was. He seemed to be taking all of this lightly and throughout the years she had known him, he was famous for not being able to keep control during a time of crisis.

Quickly she went back to the computer and into the student files. There she opened Zell's and clicked on his medical records. He was injected with the same medicene as Squall. Making sure that Zell was not looking, she grabbed the wrack of test tubes and searched for Zell's last name. Earlier on in the year, every student had to give in a blood sample for the infirmary doctor to go over in case one of them was infected with a certain contagious virus. Lucky for her, Zell's was still here.

" Quisty, leave it for tomorrow morning. It's getting late," Zell called out from the table across from where she was sitting.

" Just a few more minutes," She called back, placing a drop of his blood in a slide and then, into the computer.

The minutes seemed to go by slowly, and every tick of the clock reminded her that she may be in the room with a potential killer. Then the buzzer went off.

" What was that?" Zell asked. " Are you analyzing blood again?"

She could hear the scrape of his chair against the floor and then his heavy footsteps coming towards her. Her hands were shaking as she placed them over the mouse and clicked to see the results.

"Hurry, hurry," She whispered to herself.

The majority of Zell's blood was filled with Hexadragon venom. More then ten times the amount Squall had. And then she remembered.

" I should have known you would be the one to find out."

Quistis gasped and turned around so fast she felt as if she had snapped her neck. Zell was leaning against the table behind her and had a sinister smile on his face.

" Hexadragon venom," Quistis whispered. " The other part of the legend was that vampires were an early form of human beings, but with Hexadragon venom running through their veins."

" Nicely said." Zell clapped without any enthusiasm. " And I wouldn't try that."

Quistis pretended to sit back down in her chair as Zell walked towards her. They were silent as they stared at each other for a moment. Then Quistis leapt up and kicked Zell in the stomach. Caught off guard, he stumbled back, allowed Quistis enough time to get out of his grasp.

As she ran towards the door, she halfway expected her escape to be harder then it was. Then she cursed herself for thinking so soon.

Zell had silently crept behind one of the lab tables and now had Quistis in his arms. She kicked and punched at him but it was obvious that it was doing her no good. His grasp seemed to crush her bones and she could barely breathe, much less put up a decent fight. He groaned, then threw her on the lab table where she had been working at. The computer crashed on the floor from her impact against it and the test tubes shattered, piercing into her skin.

She closed her eyes, silent tears running down her face. Then she struggled to get up as Zell walked slowly towards her, as if savouring the moment where he would kill her. She winced as the glass cut into her and the heels of her hands slipped on the blood that had fallen out of the tubes.

" Please don't fight me, Quisty," Zell said. He had reached her and now was leaning over her body, his face just inches away from her neck. " Remember when we were little, you said you would always be there for me? Well, now you are. You don't know how hard it has been, trying to survive on only the blood of Caterchipillers,

Bite Bugs, and Glacial Eyes. So recently, I just couldn't take it any more. I didn't want to be this way-" His voice seemed to overflow with emotion when he said this. " -That doctor, he did it. A sick, twisted experiment of his. I was the first one, and now Squall. But don't worry-" Now he stroked the side of her face, trailing his fingers down to her neck. " -I'll get him. He managed to keep me away before but I'll get him back. Don't cry, Quisty. That's why I killed Selphie, Ellone and Fujin. They cried. I hate it when people cry. Now I have no choice but to..."

His voice trailed off and she saw him lean towards her neck and his eyes close. She closed her eyes as well and felt his hot breath on her neck. His lips on her neck, and then the pained feeling of two daggers piercing her skin.

Then he dropped limp on top of her. She was still, too scared to see what had happened.

" Quistis?"

That voice.

She felt Zell's body being hauled off of her and she opened her eyes to reveal her saviour.

" How did you get out?" Was the first thing that left her mouth.

Squall put a gun into his pocket, then he reached out, pulling Quistis off the table.

" I shot him with a silver bullet. Always kills vampires," Squall said, frowning. " He didn't hurt you, did he?"

Quistis shook her head, then fell into Squall's arms.

" So you shot the guards?" She whispered into his collar.

" No, actually, they never un junctioned one of my GF's. I used sleep on them."

" A Garden guard would never allow that to happen," Quistis said, surprised. She looked up into Squall's eyes. " But never mind that. Can you explain to me what had happened? About the knife and the infirmary doctor?"

Squall took in a deep breath.

" The doctor was doing experiments, first on Zell, then me. He injected us with Hexadragon venom, making us gradually into vampires. I'm not sure if he knows yet that he had succeeded, but I'm guessing that he does due to the bodies. Irvine was not killed by Zell, in case you're wondering. He committed suicide."

" How do you know?"

" I saw his body."

There was a short silence. Then Quistis looked up at Squall again.

" If you were injected with the venom, then why haven't you drank human blood yet?"

Squall looked away from Quistis, staring into the far distance.

" That knife that Seifer found...I used it to cut myself. Then I drank my own blood."

She said nothing, but felt disgusted yet sorry for Squall at the same time. The measures he took for their welfare. That was one of the reasons why she loved him so much. She held onto him tighter, then remembered something.

" Where's Rinoa? I would expect that you would have gone to her by now."

" I will soon. I'm just worried about you," Squall said, stroking Quistis' hair. He nuzzled her neck and she closed her eyes. Then she felt him stiffen.

" What's the matter?" She whispered.

" Nothing it's just that...you're covered in blood."

" I fell on Garden's blood samples."

" You're also bleeding from your neck. It seems that Zell drank your blood momentarily."

Quistis said nothing, but she began to pull away from Squall.

" It's alright," He told her, keeping a firm hand on her back. Quistis smiled, telling herself to relax. It was all over now. Hopefully, they could find a cure for Squall and everything would be alright.

As she hugged him, she suddenly felt a sharp prick on her neck. Before she could comprehend what was happening, her vision became fuzzy and her legs weak.

" I'm sorry," Squall whispered into her neck. " But I couldn't take it anymore. Having you so close to me and covered in blood. I had no choice."

He dropped her on to the floor, and in her last moments she could hear Squall asking where Rinoa was.

~~~