Disclaimer: I do not own any "Angel" or Final Fantasy VIII characters….if I did, I wouldn't be writing fan fiction…..

The New Blood To Be Shed

Ch.3

Fred was in the lab running the latest blood samples from the trio of injured teenagers that had come through the inter-dimensional pathway. As far as she could tell, they were all fine. No disease, nor sickness touched them, they were humans, not demons.

But one thing did bother her slightly, it was a small thing, that should have been easily over-looked, but she didn't. Their blood was adaptable to something, as if a transformation of some sort took over them from time to time, like werewolves. She had considered the possibility of them being a pack of wolves just in human form, but tests yielded absolute results that told they were purely human, so what was this odd finding?

The young scientist got up from her computer and went over to one of the kids that was on a hospital bed. The lab had been fixed to house the three patients because research was needed to be done on them, so they were all residing there. None of them had woke up yet, and she was glad in a way, because she wanted to find out absolutely everything that she could before they did so.

She stopped at the first bed, it was holding a blond haired teenage boy who was resting. She checked his stitches, making sure they didn't open when he shifted in his sleep and checked his vitals. He was just fine.

Fred looked at the kids' face. He had a spidery black tattoo that practically covered the whole of the right side of his face, but an all otherwise unblemished complexion. His hair had been spiked in the front and smoothed in the back, but was now over his face in limpness and sleep. He was resting peacefully. Fred brushed the hair from his face a bit and looked at him for a moment.

Just then, Spike came in, dragging the fourth teenager that had much less injuries than the others in quite carelessly.

"What is this?" Fred asked, confused as the vampire held the boy up by the back of his jacket.

"Psycho leather boy broke out of his cage," Spike explained, "Don't ask me how. Tried to kill me, so I just shut him up for a minute."

"Spike!" the young scientist yelled, "You could've killed the poor boy!"

"I didn't kill him," the vampire scoffed, "Unfortunately…"

Fred sighed, "Just set him on the exam table over there."

The blond vampire obeyed as he dragged the unconscious teenager over and laid him on the specified table, as Fred went about to get some medical supplies to help the poor kid that made the mistake of fighting Spike, or try to fight.

"So," the blond vampire said as he sat in a chair next to the table the unconscious teenager was on, "Any news on the others?"

"Yeah," Fred told him as she walked over to the table with gauze and antiseptic in hand, "The girl is stable, she had a bad gash on her head, and passed out from a loss of blood, but is going to make a full recovery. The blond haired kid is doing well, considering the fact that he had a three foot piece of metal sticking through his left arm, he's lucky in didn't break the bone."

"What about the poufy cowboy?" Spike asked.

"Poufy cowboy?" Fred asked, turning away from her patient and looking at Spike in question.

The blond vampire sighed and jerked his thumb in the direction of the bed that held the teenager that had very long brown hair. It was kind of funny, since at first glance, Fred thought he was a girl.

"Oh," the young scientist said as she turned back to her patient, "He's okay. He took a few bad hits, the crash landing must've thrown him around a bit, but he fared better than the others slightly."

Fred began to bandage the kid's head, for he had a very large gash on it, and then focused on the cuts and bruises he had on his face when she finished.

"God Spike, did you beat him unconscious?" she asked.

"No…." the vampire guiltily trailed.

"Uh, forget it…"

Spike watched her as she tended to the poor soul who met his wrath intently until he heard a small groan from the far end of the room. He got up from his seat and looked to the far off hospital bed that held the blond haired boy.

Fred looked to him, "Spike, go check on him for me will you?"

"Why can't you?" the vampire replied.

"If you didn't notice, I'm fixing up the one you nearly killed."

"Pft, fine, fine."

As Spike walked over to the hospital bed, he mumbled under his breath, "You beat someone up a little bit and everyone's on your case…"

Finally, the vampire got to the kid. Seeing his eyes flutter and his body shift in pain was a good sign that one of them was waking up of their own accord. Spike watched the kid intently until he opened his eyes hazily. The teenager blinked a few times, then his eyes widened in realization of sorts.

"Seifer…" he trailed.

"What?" Spike asked, but his throat was gripped tightly by the teenagers' right hand that seemed to shoot out of the covers.

The vampire gripped the arm but the kids' strength matched his own, he made a choking noise, being strangled wasn't his best idea of comfort. Fred looked in his direction and saw what was going on.

"Oh my God, he's awake!" she said, seemingly stuck in her current position, not able to help the blond vampire.

He was about to just knock out the kid when a voice sounded from the other side of the room.

"Let him go Zell…" someone trailed.

Fred, Spike, and the kid, presumably Zell, looked over to see the girl that was found with the two guys, sitting up wearily in her hospital bed.

"Selphie, you really expect me to do that?" Zell replied to her command.

"No, I wouldn't. But that's not Seifer, so let go of him," the girl countered.

"What do you mean he's not Seifer?"

Meanwhile, Fred and Spike were entirely quiet during this whole ordeal.

"Look at his forehead," Selphie told her friend.

Zell obeyed and studied Spike's face and then a look of realization came over his own, his grip lessened, "Oh…."

"Also, that girl's been calling him Spike this whole time," Selphie said as she turned to Fred, "I'm sorry, what's your name?"

"Just call me Fred, everyone else does," the young scientist told her patient.

"Cool!" the girl said, showing a bit of bouncy happiness.

Meanwhile, Spike was released from Zell's grip slowly.

"Sorry about that man," the teenager said as he lowered his hand, "You just look a lot like a guy I hate."

"Really?" Spike said, sarcasm in his voice as he rubbed his throat, "That's good to know."

"So," Fred began as she started to talk to Selphie as she checked all her vitals and such, "You were awake this whole time?"

"I was drifting in and out," the girl answered politely, "I can never sleep for a long time."

"Oh," was the young scientists' only reply.

"Well, that's bloody nice and all, but when exactly were you going to wake up?" Spike intervened, turning away from Zell and facing the girl, "When blondie here was through trying to kill me?"

"Blondie? Listen here you as-"

"Zell stop it!" Selphie ordered her comrade and then looked back to Spike, "One, I was very tired and did not want to wake up. And two, when I did wake up for a little bit, I wanted to make sure you intended no harm upon us."

"We don't," Fred confirmed, "We're only here to help."

"Yeah," Spike scoffed, "We're motivated go getters…"

"Spike…" Fred trailed in order to silence his remarks, proving successful, since the vampire stopped.

She looked back to the girl, "Well, I think we should start by a full introduction."

Selphie smiled, "It would take awhile."

Fred sat down, "I'm not going anywhere, and I want to make sure we're all on the same page."

"Alright…"