Alternate title: We Can't Stop Here, it's Bat Country!

See first chapter for details

A Fate Worse Than Death

Chapter 15

3rd person:

"This is stupid. We can still go back, you know." Nida's voice sounded faint, lost in the force of the wind that had picked up upon reaching the summit of the hill. He stood a good distance behind the rest of the group, arms wrapped around himself in an attempt to ward off the chill that may or may not have been a result of the weather. Squall glanced at the dark-haired man, eyes antipathetic, but he didn't say anything.

"We can't just leave this…whatever-it-is running loose, Nida. We're going to be SeeDs. It's our job to protect people by killing monsters." It was Seifer who answered, his voice laced with poorly-hidden annoyance, "don't be such a coward. It's not like healers get hurt anyway."

"I'm not being a coward! You're just being stupid." Nida's voice got quieter, so quiet that it probably would have gone unheard had the wind not died in that exact moment, "the only reason you're doing this is because Squall is, and he's suicidal." Green eyes narrowed dangerously as the gunblader turned on his heel, but whatever response he was about to make was cut short by Squall, tugging on his sleeve perhaps a bit more urgently than he had meant to.

That was when the smell reached them.

Seifer:

Nida should be considered lucky. I would've had no problem killing the fucker then and there (after all, we were in the middle of nowhere surrounded by monsters. Not like anyone could pin the blame on me) had my attention not been brought to other things. Such as a smell that was quite literally wilting the grass around us.

"What…what the…" Zell, kinda greenish and trying to breathe through his mouth, gave up whatever he had been trying to say in favor of dry heaving. I almost expected to see a reemergence of a considerable amount of post-eaten hotdogs, but I wasn't exactly disappointed. I can't stand it when other people throw up, though I was kinda close to it myself.

Whatever it was smelled like acid and dog shit, aerosol fumes and rotting corpses, burning plastic, sulfur, BO, cat piss, and dead fish. I decided that it would be nice to never smell this again.

I was trying to find something to cover my nose, get rid of the smell, or both, when violent coughing broke out to my left, and I noticed Squall, doubled over, Revolver on the ground so that he could clutch at his eyes.

"Fuck," I assessed, and dropped to his side, trying to find the Eye Drops I wasn't sure I had. A gloved hand almost hit my face as he reached out for me, coming into contact with my shoulder. Using this as a guide, he slowly shuffled towards me, hand latching onto my forearm with a grip that showed more panic than his expression.

"Seifer," he whispered hoarsely, panic making his voice unsteady, and I immediately resolved that whatever was causing this smell was going to die, "Seifer, I can't see…"

"I know," I told him softly, pulling the (thank Hyne) Eye Drops from one of the trench coat's many pockets, "I can help. Lemme see your eyes." I saw his throat work as he gulped and slowly pulled his hand from his face. It was wet, and he wiped it on his pants before turning his face towards mine.

His eyes were watering like hell, streaming down his face and clinging to his eyelashes. The tears were mixed with mucus that was beginning to cement his eyes closed, creating what was commonly known as Blind, one of the few effects I had immunity to. I did my best to brush it all away before opening his eyes with my hands and squeezing the small bottle of its contents.

Squall blinked, rubbed at his face with his free hand (his other was still latched onto my arm) and looked up at me. His eyes were bright, glowing with a slightly bluish light that was the aftereffect of the Drops. I smiled down at him in what I hoped was a comforting way, but he looked too worried to be at ease. He looked around.

"Something's wrong with Zell," a reassessment of our surroundings, then, "and Nida's gone." Figures.

Reaching behind him, he picked up Revolver, and slid it into his belt before turning back to look at me. There was a brief moment where he seemed to be deciding something, and then the hand on my arm slid up to my neck, and his lips were against mine, and the fingers of his free hand were sliding over my stomach as he pulled himself closer. I just sat there for a second before I realized what was happening, and then I returned the kiss, sliding my own arm around his waist.

And then he was gone.

"Hey!" I looked up, watching as he stopped just at the limit and gazed back at me expectantly, "Fuck! No! You can't do that!" He just raised an eyebrow, and I sighed, wishing circumstances were a bit less full of potential death. Hauling myself to my feet, I made my way over to Zell, Leonhart in tow.

Zell was coughing violently, hands gripping his throat as if to choke the problem out. His eyes were watering, too, and when he saw us he tried to speak, but another coughing fit broke out.

Silence, and Blind.

"Aw, fuck."

Squall:

Shiva's eyes were glittering dangerously, like fire reflected in ice, and I knew she could smell a fight. We all could, but I think she was the only one who knew what we were to face. I didn't ask her, though. I knew better than to talk to her right now. When she got like this, her voice, usually calming and cool, grew sharp and biting with frost, and the hands I remembered as healing grew sharp with ice and diamond dust.

So I turned away, and ignored her for now, my eyes resting on Seifer. Zell had moved a ways away, trying to get away from the smell.

He looked worried, and on impulse I placed a hand on his shoulder. I'm not really sure why. I think Matron used to do it. He looked up at me, green flashing overbright, and I knew that his immunity towards blind had kicked in. The Eye Drops were all that kept me seeing, now, but they would soon wear off, and my sight would grow watery and unstable again. My nose had stopped working altogether for the smell, and I thought I'd faint with relief if nothing else.

"It's Silence," Seifer was talking, "and Blind. This is fucked up, Squall, you know that, right?"

"Yeah," I readjusted my grip on Revolver. My sight was dragging to the left, my ears straining to hear something I couldn't identify, and I knew that Shiva could sense something over the rise and was trying pinpoint it.

"There's nothing here, man. Not that we can see," he continued, "but the smell alone is fucking with us. This doesn't happen. Not here. Maybe in Esthar, but not Balamb. You're supposed to see a monster before it can attack you."

I frowned, nodded, trying to keep my eyes focused on Seifer instead of the rise, but the pull was getting stronger.

Stop it. I directed to the wall in my mind, we'll get to it eventually. The pull only grew stronger.

"I'm out of Eye Drops, too, and I never had an Echo Screen."

With a mental sigh, I gave in, letting Shiva turn my head to face the hill. My eyes started to water again, beginning to burn with the smell.

"Maybe we should just go back. We'd be fucked if we had to fight something in this state, without a healer." There was a brief silence both outside an in my head, and risking a glance at the wall I saw Shiva, both hands resting against the ice as she stared past me at the hilltop, eyes hard as the diamonds that frosted her skin.

It's coming. Excitement and a deadly joy, in a tone I had never heard her use. It sent chills up my spine, and I almost backed away when she turned the gaze to me. Almost.

I will not let it harm you, Lion. She said, her voice softening a bit. Long blue nails dug into the ice, betraying the calm her words exuded, we must fight it. It is your duty as a SeeD. But we will protect you, Ifrit and I. There is no cause for concern.

I frowned, not liking how anxious she was. I knew it had been a long time since the last fight, longer than any SeeD was advised to contain a Guardian without using them in battle, so I guess it wasn't unexpected…

"Squall?"

A hand on my shoulder, and I almost jumped before I recognized it. I managed to turn my head towards Seifer, and pointed to the place Shiva was obsessing over.

"Something's coming," I told him, and he sighed, shouldering his Hyperion. His other hand found its way around my waist, and he pressed his lips against the top of my head.

"Yeah," he whispered into my hair, and I shivered, but not with cold, "Yeah, okay. I guess we gotta fight it then, huh?" I didn't really want to nod. The weight on my head felt nice, but then I realized I was acting like a girl, not to mention a lovesick girl. I hated those. So I nodded.

The arm around my waist tightened, and his head, dislodged by my movement, came to rest on my shoulder. Lips against my neck, then teeth, then tongue. I elbowed him in the stomach.

"Ouch," he purred, pulling me back against him. I sighed, and reach up to rub my eyes. The burning was getting worse.

"You know we could die, right?" His hand was creeping down, pulling my eyes away from the horizon to focus on its path. It paused at my hip, then slid up under my shirt, and stopped, apparently content with just skin-on-skin contact. In spite of myself, I leaned back against him, trying to look annoyed and not at all distracted by the way he was trying to pull the stud out of my ear with his teeth. I felt Seifer smile against my skin.

"All the more reason to kiss me back. You'll regret not doing it if we do just happen to get our asses kicked." If it wasn't apparent before, it was now undeniably clear that he had probably been hit with a shovel at a young age. It was probably my doing, too. I sighed.

"Fine," I growled, not completely displeased, and turned in his grasp. Eyes closed, I felt gloved hands ghost across my face and then slide into my hair. A sigh brushed across my cheek, and Seifer's lips were on mine, warm and soft and much less eager than he had been moments before. My body, growing used to this far faster than my mind was, pressed closer, and I wove my fingers into the front of his shirt.

From a short ways away, Zell coughed; the only objection he could make at the moment. Seifer smiled, and then broke the kiss. I let my forehead fall to rest against his chest, just for a second. The arm around my waist loosened.

"Let's go," I said, stepping back. My eyes were watering again, but I could still sort of make out green eyes and blonde hair. I tried to rub my vision clear.

"This fucking sucks. I hate blind,"

"Yeah," Seifer agreed, "What the hell did you waste your immunities on?"

I frowned.

"Confusion, and Sleep," Confusion made me uncomfortable, loss of control as it was, and Sleep made me nervous, because it left me completely vulnerable.

"And Zell?" I frowned. Zell had told me once before, during practice…

"Petrify and Berserk."

"Petrify and Berserk?" Seifer raised an eyebrow, "he really is an idiot. We don't ever get those out here. Ever. Talk about a waste." Another muffled cough from Zell, to which Seifer rolled his eyes.

"Even Silence can't properly shut him up," he muttered, half-joking.

"Yeah," I agreed absently, trying to locate the martial artist with my failing vision. It was useless, however, for earth and sky had begun to melt, mingling with one another like water and oil, never quite merging but definitely not staying where there were supposed to. I felt trapped in an abstract painting, or a crazy drug trip. I reached my hand towards where I knew Seifer was supposed to be, coming into contact with the rough denim of his trench coat. Fingers wove through my own, and then dropped to hang in the space between us.

"I can't see shit," I told him, trying to determine what were trees and what were clouds, and since when was the sky brown? I rubbed my eyes with my free hand again, shaking my head hating this stupid status effect. Then I felt the hand in mine stiffen, and what I had thought was silence got even quieter.

I wanted to whisper something, to ask what it was that he saw, but something in the quiet compelled me to mimic it. Then, through the haze and the blindness there was movement so large even I could see it, accompanied by a sudden sickening squishing sound that made me wish the silence had stuck around.

"That's bad, isn't it?" I asked, afraid to wipe at my eyes though the urge to do so was overwhelming. A shifting sound, and I felt Seifer move in front of me. Any indignation I may have felt in an ordinary situation was drowned out by fear and voices in my head telling me that this was it; I was going to die.

"Yes," came the answer, high-pitched and wavering, and I was allowed one clear thought before the thing was upon us.

Shit.

End of Chapter 15

Oh my god, I was forever in updating and it's horrid and short. I am so sorry guys, but I've sort of lost interest in this story, which is just as well as there are only about two more chapters. I promise to finish it eventually, but I can't say when. I just ask you hang in there.

Once again, I'm so sorry. But damn it, I'll finish this thing if it kills me.

Thanks to everyone who reviewed, I love you, and I only hope this chapter was remotely acceptable.

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