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Father's
House (part 3)
By Acid Rain Part of Race Ulfson's Fever Arc. I don't own them. Pity me. Implied yaoi. Violence. Other yummy stuff. Merry Christmas. |
Laguna Loire:
I watched my son sleep, tangled up with Irvine. I should probably be distressed over the fact that my son is sleeping with another boy, but I just couldn't work up the gumption to care at the time – he looked so happy with his lover curled around him. Relaxed and sweet and painfully thin. Not quite so alien when he was not moving.
That whole 'alien' thing was moot anyway. I was going to move like that soon enough. Kiros had gone over… his beauty only intensified with the changes, the upswept, delicately pointed ears, the young dark skin sleek as highly polished mahogany, those deep, gloriously sparkling autumn honey eyes…he was so beautiful it tugged at my crotch the way it hadn't in years. It wasn't even that he had grown less beautiful with age – on the contrary. But he was… so… aware of himself now, every breeze that touched those ears made him shiver deliciously, every glance from a man made him blush, that sweet flush coming up almost invisible to anyone who didn't know him well. It made everyone else aware of him 'waking up' to himself and it made us all have to adjust our pants.
The changes to Ward were slower in coming but it hit him hard – he was out and had been for over 18 hours since Kiros bit him. The Fever was very bad for him – he had looked dead twice now. But Kiros wouldn't let anyone touch him and he had started breathing again both times within ten minutes. After the first time I gave orders to let Kiros take care of him – we had 2 men down in the infirmary, thankfully, neither showed signs of the Fever. But Kiros meant business, and when he said 'don't touch him' I guess he wasn't kidding.
Ward's scars faded. They're still there, yes, but they're just faint creases, lines, not the corded keloid tissue of before. And he's … different… limbs longer - straighter… he looks younger; his flesh seems to be redistributing itself. He looks decidedly slimmer, almost lanky. He's actually gotten almost 3 inches taller, and that's just… well, ridiculous. I think I'll get a howda and ride on him if he gets too much bigger. And where is it fair that a sick guy should look so damned healthy? I had gone away to check some paperwork and damn, when I went back there was Ward Jr. all snug in the bed I'd left Ward my old friend, looking more like a sweaty youth on a hot summer night than an old veteran sick with fever.
I on the other hand, still looked like a sweaty Laguna Loire. No real changes I could see. Were my eyes brighter, or was that just fever? Were my hands less lined, or was I just retaining water? Yeah, guys do that too! Shut up!
My ears didn't seem any more pointed. My teeth looked normal. When was the change going to hit me?
I was interrupted from my whiney self by Squall suddenly sitting up out of a dead sleep, eyes snapping open and his head yanking itself towards a direction as if a giant unseen hand was twisting him… the direction of Odine's lab.
"Rinoa… I'm coming… don't… Don't give up…" He dragged himself out of bed, Irvine looking up all blinky and confused, looking slightly hurt the way children do when you wake them from a good dream.
It only took me a few seconds to figure out what was going on.
The Sorceress Rinoa was calling her Knight.
"Squall! You're too sick to go runnin' off to wherever…" Irvine started, rubbing his eyes and reaching for Squall. "Come on, you're just getting over this fever…"
Squall absolutely sparked, like a wrench dropped on a battery contact. "No." His quiet was twice as loud as someone else's yelling – you had to strain to hear him but it rang on your nerves, he was so… determined. "I have to go. She's dying."
"…what?" Irvine looked shocked, but all I felt was that crackle of sudden certainty … Odine had her. I hated him. He had my son's woman and something was very, very wrong, and he was doing it on purpose.
Squall looked at me, strange flickering of understanding in his eyes, Rain's eyes, and there was a weird shiver down my spine. His voice was stronger now, more certain. And just a little savage. "You. Me. Irvine's to guard Kiros and Ward – if the aliens return, just shoot them before they're in voice range, Irvine. Selphie comes with us. She can cover our backs and she's best with the computers we'll have to get through."
"You think it's gonna be a fight?"
Squall smiled, a little fire backlighting those silver eyes. "I'm hoping there will be."
Aw. He really does take after me in little ways that count!
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Blinding heat – how the hell could I forget how freaking hot it was out here at this stinking lab? Getting inside, for all that it creeped me out, was a blessing, to get away from that horrible heat.
Both of us had fought our way in before. This time we were just shown right in. no fight? But but but…. Awwwwwwwwwwww…
"This just means we'll have to fight them all on the way out." Selphie muttered darkly. She smiled a sunny smile at one robotic monster guard thing. "Fucknoid." She said cheerily to it.
It did not, of course, respond.
Squall staggered against me when they got close to the inner lab, and looked up at me with eyes that were like haunted silver moons. "She's going to die. We have to get to her right now."
"Alright, keep control, Squall. It'll be alright. I'll make it alright." I was babbling. The stupid human guard that was with us was fumbling at the panel; he'd fucked the code up twice. I shoved him out of the way. "Move, I'll do it."
"But you can't possibly know the code, you're not cleared for…"
BUDDABUDDABUDDABUDDA! Ppppzzzzzzzzzzzzt! The door opened. I grinned and waved my machinegun. "Hundred and one uses."
Selphie kept the robot thingey off us while we entered the lab. Squall was beelining for a tank in the center of the room, and I was hot on his heels. "Squall. Squaaaaaaaaaaaaall. Trap, this is a trap, slow down…"
I felt it before I saw it. I turned and shot the net coming towards me right out of the air – and blasted several instruments of some sort that made the previously hidden Odine wail like a stepped on rat. Squall was staring into the tank, horror and dismay written on his pale face. "What are you doing to her… what are you DOING you sick fuck!?" He started on a whisper and ended in a roar, going for Odine… And blocked by a big bastard who stepped out of the shadows to cover the dainty little science prick. FUCK! A lanian!! I skipped back like he was radioactive – I'd seen the effect they had had on my son and his boyfriend.
Squall almost bounced off the big bastard's chest and swung that gun blade out in an arc to cut the man in two. The Lanian blocked with some kind of weird circular knife that curved back along his arm. Selphie snarled and drew magic from the Lanian as several more came out of the shadows of the lab.
"No one move or I will terminate my experiment AND zee sorceress!" Odine squealed. That stopped Squall. Selphie was boiling mad but Squall stopped her from advancing with a gesture.
"What are you doing to her, Odine? Answer Commander Leonhart." I said carefully, moving a little so I could get a clear shot at him. Even if we all got swamped, Odine was going to die, one way or another.
"She responds marvelously to stimuli … she's adjusted her ability to take acidity, and then to large doses of radiation. She's already got claws and fangs – an attempt at aggression, I suspect. But she's too weak to do anything with her sorcery, much less attack with those feeble natural weapons." He giggled. "Now I am trying to see if I can make her grow fur! She's already got a nice fuzzy tail. They tell me its possible to revert them to the point where they can walk on all fours if they are stressed long enough – I must see this for myself."
Squall covered his mouth and for a horrible moment, I thought he was going to cry or puke or both. I turned to get ready to rumble, because I knew that Squall would be on it like a chocobo on a green and we'd be doing some real Odine whackin' when he figured out we were never going to get her away from the pest otherwise and we could always phoenix down her … But it was Selphie that moved first – she jumped forward and cracked Odine on the noggin with a really keen sound like dropping a bowling ball on a concrete floor! He staggered but he obviously had something junctioned or a Wall up or something because he didn't' go down like the colorful beribboned bag of poo he so resembled.
He balled up his fist and he hit her. Ineffective – c'mon, this was a SeeD fer crissakes. She took it and was starting to cast as he yelled at her. "Foolish girl! I'll get them to let me carve you open and take that baby – they won't need it when they have all of you to breed another!" While Odine raved, Selphie'd cast a protection spell of some sort on herself – smart girl. She reacted to his nasty threat …not at all. She already counted the prancing little pizzle as dead, would be my guess.
All of the Lanians had turned when he smacked Selphie, not as if they wanted to, but more like they were sleep walking. The one who'd been between Odine and Squall stepped now between Selphie and Odine – but he was not looking at Selphie. I'd felt a strange little … tug… myself. Like a little beeper had gone off or something that I'd been expecting without knowing it, my attention was on Odine.
"The Woman is Pregnant." One of the Lanians whispered. "You cannot harm her."
"Pff. You are zadly mistaken." Odine snorted. "And all of you are in my lab now – foolish of you, really. If you are not helping in the experiment… you can help another way, I've no reason to let perfectly good lab animals go." He smirked at the big alien. "You all will back off or join the experiment. I've decided to keep the pregnant one, just because you irk me and I would love to experiment on the child invitro. It's not like its human, after all."
Squall made a noise like an angry cat – half growl, half moan, strangled sounding as he focused entirely on Odine. "I'll just kill you and that will end the whole mess."
"Yeah! Good plan, Squall!" Selphie bounced in place and took a swipe at the Alien who was blocking Odine from her sight with his huge bod. The Lanian not only didn't strike back, he half cringed, tho the blow had seemed to just be a 'ow' not an 'argh' kind of blow. And he didn't even try to hit her back.
I had been sneaking over to the console – lever, lever, there must be a lever. Oooooo, a bright red shiny button… maybe that one? No, no, Odine liked levers. Ah! Covered panel. Darn, need a key… One hundred and one uses might not be so good in here where I could blow something up we might need later. Like me.
My attention was yanked by Odine taking advantage of the alien's cringe to take a step to the side and shoot Selphie with an ugly little gun that looked like a black wasp had had sex with an Uzi. Selphie crashed to the ground like a ton of bricks and made both Squall and myself get ready to just forget about rescue and just rip the bowsucking festerfuck's head off and shove it in a dark, smelly place – but we didn't get time. All of this took place in much less time than it's taking me to write this, after all.
Every one of the aliens made a growling noise that made me shudder and feel … almost as if I were being yanked out of my body, forced like a puppet to turn and take a step … I wrenched myself right back away, none of that shit, that was some Sorceress crap I'd learned to deal with – I saw Squall do the same thing out of the corner of my eye, shaking himself as if he were coming out of a sleepwalking session.
"What are you doing, fools?! Get them! That was our agreement, I would keep the sterile female, the sorceress, you would get the Bloodline you wanted …Ack! No!" Odine squealed.
One of them went for Odine and got shot by the waspgun. The alien went down but the others swarmed Odine – it was horrifying – they just tore him to pieces as he shot them one by one, until they ripped that arm off too. And I couldn't move to stop them – I wanted to be there, clawing and biting with them at the man who'd hurt a Pregnant Woman.
Squall finally focused enough to cast and hit one with a powerful Sleep spell. Ha! Take that, alien buttheads! They all went down when he got a sleep status effect to hit one of them, which was freaky, but I didn't ask. What I did do was walk up to where Odine was and get his key… and then put a bullet between his eyes. He was still alive after all the damage they'd done to him. Tough little git. Not anymore. I tossed the keys to Squall and he had that panel open and the tank was draining, releasing Rinoa from whatever those wires and tubes were doing to her… ugh… I don't like to think of that. I had to resist the urge to phoenix down the nasty bow wearing fucker and rez him so I could kill him again or let Squall have a go at him.
Then the Lanians woke up as if a switch had been thrown. All but the ones Odine shot and the one that Squall had gotten the actual status effect to stick to – whatever locked them together must have dissipated. "Oh boy."
Squall had Rinoa, soggy, coughing and gasping, but alive, in his arms and was getting ready to do battle while carrying her. That's my boy. Stubborn little shit. We were soooooooo fucked. Out numbered, out classed… and oh shit, one of the men was focusing on Squall and starting to do that… that thing!
Before I could so much as raise my gun, a horrible noise like a thousand crickets sharpening razorblades against their noisemakers exploded into the room, making all of us wince and the Lanians there get even more pale than before. Several alarms went off at once and the place's emergency lights cut on as the main power went out.
I saw Squall's eyes go wide and the Lanians all snarled, but it was a frightened snarl, not a threat. They were obviously surrenduring. I looked where Squall had focused, staring as if he were about to go into a seizure. He was starting to slide to the floor with Rinoa – his strength had all been used up getting to her. He had nothing left – as he always did, he used everything up to accomplish his goal.
"In trouble, always in trouble, Squirt." He was speaking to my son, a big arrogant smirk crossing his beautiful scarred face. … Familiar face… oh shit…
Fuck me with a moomba! That was Seifer Almasy… and he was LANIAN!