Not my boys; if they were there would be more yaoi and less combat.

Many hugs and thank yous for the reviews! I'm glad you find it creepy; I hope I can sustain the effect. Another mild chappie but next is yaoi and I hope worth the overall rating of the fic.

Xineko beta-ed this chapter and many of the good bits are hers, or Acid Rain's, or Pixie518's. XI is trying to wean me off "he said" but it's a fight.


Revenant

Chapter 4: Squall, Irvine


Zell and I made our way to the right side of the corridor.

"You want me to take point, Baby?" To his credit, all signs of his recent scare had vanished.

"We'll stay together." I wished I could shrug off the effect of witnessingZell frightened as easily. "I don't want only one of us to see whatever we find."

"'kay," Zell chirped, and took me at my word; if he got any closer, he would have been looped within the loosest of my belts.

The first dorm I opened and peered in was largely empty, but the rumpled and dusty bedding remained. It read to me as if the occupant had been given enough warning to pack but not to clean.

Zell and I searched each dorm diligently, working our way back towards the stairs and the allegedly haunted room. Major discoveries thus far: numerous candy wrappers, a well thumbed stash of 'Girl Next Door' magazines, and a truly gruesome towel; it must have been left wet in the shower, mildewing ever since into a horrid wad.

Pausing by one of the ubiquitous glassed in bulletin boards that Gardens can't seem to function without, Zell played the beam of his light over the grayed and dusty notices. "Hn, doesn't seem like the Cafeteria menu improved much in 10 years."

"But they are on their second side of beef already," I teased mildly, scanning the hall out of habit. The reddish glow from Seifer's Fira spilling across the hall up ahead told me he and Irvine were either more efficient or less thorough. A row of open doors marked their progress; I realized we had done the same. Something glinted and for a moment, I thought I was seeing a large puddle of blood. Keeping my voice calm, I said, "Zell, what is that?"

Instantly Zell turned and flashed his light around. "Looks like a puddle of ice... maybe the pipes burst? It's awful close to Shiva's Outhouse, there."

Shiva- and I on her behalf- was faintly insulted by the association. As if she'd have any involvement with frightening children. Or SeeDs. Or anything to do with plumbing, for that matter. "It's right on the other side," I agreed. "Logically the bathrooms are back to back like in the upper floors." We edged closer. It must have been the shielding on Zell's minitorch that made everything looks so luridly wet and red.

I looked for signs of water damage typical with a broken water pipe but saw none ."I'm going to Scan it."

Zell looked hesitant. "Okay, Baby, but..." I nodded curtly to him and cast, braced for apparitions of bloody screaming faces.

I was not prepared for that icy puddle erupting in a volcano of frozen blood. I fell back against Zell's chest, arm instinctively raised to shield my eyes; the rest of me was inundated with slurries of slime. I felt rivulets dripping through my hair and choked on the smell of old freezer burned meat.

Zell caught me; steadied me against his chest. "Peeeeee-Ew!" How can anyone gag cheerfully?

Seifer and Irvine rushed into the hall. "Hyne!" Seifer made a retching noise. "Somebody fart and improve that stench."

Irvine laughed, immediately apologized for laughing, and continued to chuckle. He rummaged in his purse and came up with a packet of moist towellettes, which he handed to me.

"Do I wanna to know why you carry those?" Zell asked. I realized I was still cradled in his grasp and moved hastily away to attempt cleanup.

Irvine grinned and winked at Zell in lieu of a reply, and returned to his survey of the hallway. He was nearly back to back with Seifer who stood vigil over the passage to the doors, past the supposedly haunted room.

"Well, we're rockin' and rollin', now," Seifer grumbled.

I scrubbed at my face; nothing is quite as revoltingly sticky as old blood. Now I smelled like lemon fresh old freezer burned meat.

"What happened?" Irvine asked.

"It's Scan," Zell offered. "Freaky shit pops out under Scan."

"Why, though?" I looked for a place to discard the used wipes. I was forced to tuck them back into their foil envelopes and put them in my pocket.

Chewing his lip, Zell shrugged. "Didn't happen when you cast in The Bathroom, did it, Irvine?"

"I didn't cast. The plants were dead and I'm not in the habit of Scanning inanimate objects like you guys. Anyway," he confessed with a bad little boy smile, "I'm not junctioned. I don't like having Siren in my head 24/7; I have to call her and then junction and I tend to avoid it if I can."

I sighed. Irvine had taken to paramagic and the GF's easily enough during the war; it was easy enough for me to forget the fact that -not trained at Balamb- he might still retain memories he was loathe to lose.

"Scan is the paramagical version of clairvoyance," Seifer remarked absently. "You get a lot of symbolism in those spells, remember the elemental notes on most monsters?"

Nodding, I tried not to flinch as the blood soaked fur of my collar brushed my jaw. "Clear this area and then we'll go back; we need electrical testing equipment and other supplies."

"Like about a case of 'Springtime in Winhill' air freshener," Zell said.

"I do have aromatherapy candles," Irvine confessed. "Bergamot, grapefruit-ginger, and Rose-orange. Good for energy and happiness."

"In short, sex." Zell laughed. "There was never any doubt."


Squall marched us through the search each dorm: bedroom, dresser, bathroom, next; Zell hustled alongside him like a good little soldier. Seifer and I hovered on the fringes, sticking close together, on watch for I don't know what. Maybe Seifer was looking for comfort, after all he was acting skittish before we even got here. I can tell you, that worried me a lot more than the possibility of a haunted can: something that made Seifer sweat, Zell yell, and Squall flinch.

I figured when it was my turn, I'd faint dead away like a proper Galbadian lady confronted with a naked man and a smirk. Come to think on it, I was much more in the mood for a naked man than ghost busting, and I eyed my three soon to be volunteers.

"Are we really going hang here until midnight?" I hoped I didn't sound whiny. The charge on Zell's flashlight wouldn't last that long and not even Seifer could hold a spell for hours.

Squall stretched a little, a very distracting movement, and confirmed, "We should leave now and come back with hazmat gear, and an electrical testing kit." Took me a few minutes to translate that; my brain turned off all upper function the moment his shoulders and back started their sinuous arch. The path of the horndog never runs smoothly, but oh, the bumps are lovely.

"Good idea, Baby," Zell bounced, "maybe take a peek down in engineering at the climate controls for this area." He's always happy to have a direction to channel all that energy. My personal theory of why Zell and Quezacotal get along so well? He powers her.

We collected at the stairway doors and Squall moved to the pad to key in the pass codes. It occurred to me that he hadn't offered the codes to any of us, and we hadn't asked, which meant if he'd been knocked unconscious instead of sprayed with stinky, stale water, we'd all be well and truly fucked without a kiss. And not in any nice way.

I pulled in a bit closer as if ready to help muscle the doors open once the magnetic locks released, and took advantage of my height to spy a little. I noticed Seifer was also memorizing the code while holding the Fira to give Squall light.

Naturally, the doors didn't open. Not good.

Seifer's ironic monotone dropped flat against the dusty hush: "Booyaka."

"Uh-oh," Zell scooted to Squall's side, examining the doorpad.

"Manual override," Squall said, offering a long red key. "One of you take the key and I'll count down to the codes."

Zell grabbed the key and with a nifty bit of juggling, tossed me his flashlight. I covered Squall and Seifer slipped over to give Zell enough light to find the keyhole.

"Turn on my command," Squall punched in a series of numbers too fast for me to catch. "Ready?"

"Ready," Zell confirmed.

Squall keyed the final code and as he hit enter, called, "Turn."

Blue sparks danced over the keypad and frissons of wicked light played over Squall, who stumbled back against me with a gasp of pain. My hand seared on one of his belt buckles when I grabbed him as his legs folded. We collapsed together, me on my knees, and Squall wound up in my lap. It's a position I would have liked a lot better under other circumstances.

"Hyne's hairy ass crack," Seifer snarled, shoulder slamming Zell away from the key before he was completely electrocuted. The little guy hit the wall like a sack of fried turds and slid down with a groan.

Seifer on him like a chocabo on greens, dropping the long held Fira. The flashlight had fallen from my hands: it was dark enough to see foul lightening licking over Zell's armored gloves before he or Quezacotal sucked it up.

Predictably, the doors did not budge one iota. Really not good.

"Zell?" Squall panted.

"...hands," Zell confessed.

"Light!" Seifer demanded.

"Fuck," I muttered. The cylindrical object I wanted to touch was not the one I was fumbling for in the dark.

I came up with a handful of lightsticks from my carryall. I popped two and rolled them at Seifer and Zell, then clenched one in my teeth as I searched for a potion. I nearly laughed and dropped our light when I looked over at poor Zell: the electricity had puffed his hair out so he looked like a tattooed dandelion.

Seifer scooped up a lightstick and ordered, a might unnecessarily in my opinion, "Check Squall out, Irvine. I got the 'wuss."

"Not a wuss," Zell said, sounding more like the baby only I remembered than the warrior.

Seifer just smoothed down some of Zell's poofed hair distractedly and dug a potion from his pocket. "Load up," he said, pouring some of the healing liquid directly onto Zell's palms. "Burn on your weapon is not good."

That mental image made me shift and wince a bit, and it wasn't Exeter I was thinking about, either. I gazed down at my armful of Squall. "You ok, Captain?"

"Yes," Squall stripped off his gloves. "Shocked me, feels like my hands are burned, too."

"'m fine, Quez protects me from most electrical damage." Zell inspected his armored gloves. "but maybe not from getting scorched by hot metal..."

"You do not neglect your weapon and in your case, it's your hands." Seifer reiterated with remarkable patience for him. He dumped more cure across Zell's palms. "Can you flex them all right?"

Squall's hands, bare for my examination, were slim and pale, like a lady's, except for the fact that he chews his nails. Maybe that's why he wears the gloves all the time. "Doesn't look too bad." I assured him.

"No," Squall confirmed gravely, "the blood isn't mine."

I blinked; tried to focus in the weird green light of the glowsticks. "...blood?"

I didn't see any blood.

"When I got splattered," Squall explained. "Some of the blood must have soaked through my gloves and stained my hands, they are covered in blood." I didn't remember seeing any blood out in the hall, either, just some frost and that lovely smell of stagnant bilge water. Sensing my hesitation, he repeated reassuringly, "It's not mine."

Not at all comforted, I glanced over to Seifer, who was occupied with helping a shaken Zell to his feet.

"I ain't sayin' what I'm seein'," Seifer said. "Get a potion in Lady MacBeth, Irv."

"Is this a gunblade I see before me?" Zell chortled faintly and leaned against the wall. His addled gaze fell on the doors. "Aw, they didn't open?"

"Right, blood. Hold still, Darlin'" I coaxed a potion down Squall. I love playing doctor.

Taking the potion like a good boy, Squall fished out his cell phone. "Fried. Irvine, do you have yours? Can you reach Quis?"

I shook my head. "Rings too much, too distractin' when I'm tryin' to work."

"It's still a few hours to midnight." Seifer said, grimly. "You wanted to see what new happy shit would get flung into the whirling blades of our lives then, anyway."

Squall edged away from me and stood; he must have finally realized he had been sitting in my lap. "I want a shower." I tried not to take that personal, blaming the blood I couldn't see.

"Here?" Zell was incredulous.

"You'll freeze your dick off." Seifer demurred for a beat; then palmed his face and shook his head. "Wait, what am I saying?"

"You aren't coated in," Squall ignored Seifer and stalked to the nearest dorm. "...whatever."

"In what, frost?" Zell trotted along behind.

"No, frozen blood, it's disgusting."

Zell and I exchanged looks. "Baby," he tried, "There's no blood on you. Not that I can see, anyway."

"I can see it." Squall snapped, then halted and added, "I'm hallucinating. Could the air quality be bad?"

"Maybe it's that frost gunk," I said smoothly, more than happy with the idea of getting Squall naked.

Zell agreed, "Wouldn't hurt to wash it off."

"Aw, you don't like Our Fearless Leader smelling like a wet mutt?" Seifer tossed Zell's duffle onto the bunk, laughing in the face of Squall's indignant glare. But he seemed to me like he was forcing it.

"I'll get cleaned up and we can all rest until zero-hundred hours," Squall said. "Nothing happens, we'll have verified it's mechanical issues, not some ...paranormal infestation." He shrugged off his jacket with a faint expression of distaste. "Worst case scenario, we wait a day for Quistis and Xu to rescue us."

"That is the worst case, totally," Zell wrinkled his nose. "We could try the ducts to another level, first. Up might be tricky but down, to engineering, that's doable."

"You mean you will try the vents," Seifer said. "No way will I fit. In fact, I'm not too sure you can get your shoulders thru there anymore, Chickie." He grinned. "Might have to drop Kinneas down the hole."

I shuddered. The dark didn't bother me, but small dark close places – close being defined and anywhere without enough room to pull Exeter and shoot – gave me the heebie-jeebies.

Squall left a trail of wet leathers to the bathroom. Zell followed dutifully along behind him, picking them up and shaking them out before spreading the clothes to dry. He held up a glowstick and scrutinized Squall's jacket by its wavery incandescence. "Just looks like water to me," he murmured, cutting his eyes to the bathroom door as it closed.

Seifer nodded. "Don't leave him in there alone."

"I'll go in," I said, trying not to drool. "I have body wash and shampoo in my gear." I fished out my amenities and a towel. I ignored Zell's baffled stare and tossed the travel candles to Seifer. "You guys get it all nice and cozy in here," I smiled beatifically, "I'll go scrub the Captain's back."

"It's a dirty job," Zell sighed, "but somebody's gotta do it."