Disclaimer: (See Part I.)

A/N: Chayn is a character that I made up; I own nothing else but the plot of this story.

To my readers/reviewers: Another update especially for Lady Pyrefly, and a little more Zell/Irvine for QueenAdreena. Keep the reviews coming all! I love them.

-.-.-.-.-

Five thousand two hundred and seventy-two volumes of Timber Maniacs later, Irvine and Zell were completely exhausted and immediately went to the Timber hotel to spend whatever hours were remaining before dawn sleeping.

-.-.-.-.-

Irvine walked down the seemingly endless blue-carpetedcorridor. He didn't know where it led too, but the only choices that he had were to stay where he was, or keep on walking.

He walked and walked until eventually he saw the silhouette of a figure standing up ahead of him. He quickened his pace in fear that the person might disappear. He had to find out where he was, and how to get out of the bizarre corridor.

As he moved closer to the silhouette the once blue carpet faded into grey, and the figure's features became more clear and he recognized the person as Zell. He was clothed in loose, flowing black robes from head to foot, and at his foot was an alligator.

"Zell. What is this place? How do we get out of here?" asked Irvine.

Zell held his finger up to his mouth in a gesture to quiet his friend. He looked up to the ceiling. Irvine followed his line of sight and stood, amazed, as the corridor walls vanished and he found himself on top a grassy cliff-side in a black and white world.

A raven, black as a northern night, flew between the two and soared past Irvine, nearly brushing his head as it went.

Irvine watched as the swoosh of black flew off into the distance behind him. He turned back to Zell only to see that he was no longer standing there, but was now at the feet of Chayn where the alligator had been moments earlier.

There was something strange about Chayn though, that Irvine was now registering. He was holding something that looked like a dagger and it was dripping with . . . blood, and Zell wasn't just at Chayn's feet, he was bent over holding his stomach.

"Stop!" Irvine shouted at Chayn. "What are you doing?" He took a few steps toward the two on the cliff-side.

Chayn murmured something under his breath before pushing Zell over the edge of the cliff.

Irvine raced to the edge in a losing attempt to catch Zell.

Chayn threw his head back and laughed at Irvine's desperate attempt to save his friend.

Irvine turned to Chayn and grabbed him by the shirt. "Have you gone insane?"

Chayn stopped laughing and looked at Irvine with a blank stare. "What?" he asked, grabbing Irvine by the shoulders and pushing him toward the edge of the cliff as well.

Irvine's heel began to slide off the edge of the cliff. For a little guy Chayn was proving to be quite stronger than Irvine had ever anticipated. He pushed back with all his might, but soon found himself falling . . . falling . . .

CRASH!

Irvine landed hard on the floor, struggling to get out of the bed sheet he was tangled up in. As soon as he freed himself from the sheet he jumped up and his eyes flew to the bed.

Zell was fine and still asleep. He whimpered in him sleep and mumbled something incomprehensibly, though the word 'hotdog' could be understood.

Irvine blinked and rubbed his head. 'What a dream,' he thought. He reached for his jacket on the night table and pulled it on, still pondering his recent dream. What did it mean? Maybe it was a-

"Sign!" shouted Zell in his sleep. "Read the sign!"

Irvine jumped. Was his dream a sign? Was Chayn going to kill Zell? Impossible! Maybe he should stay away from high cliffs though. Not that he believed that his dreams had any prophetic meaning to them, but he didn't want to take any chances just in case.

Once Zell had forcefully been awoken by Irvine, they bought a train ticket back to Balamb where they're next few tasks would be completed.

-.-.-.-.-

To the boys' surprise the tasks so far hadn't been all that difficult to complete. They got through helping the new SeeDs through their training with relative ease, as the group was overall well behaved. Now they were on their way to the Quad to help set up the stage for Selphie's 'Save the Pupu Campaign'.

"What do you think we'll have to do for this?" asked Zell.

Irvine shrugged, not really caring what he had to do so long as it didn't involve talking to Selphie for very long.

Selphie stood on the floor in front of the stage pointing two men carrying a large screen to where she wanted it to be placed for her presentation.

"Looks like we're going to help set up." Zell answered his own question.

Selphie looked to Zell and Irvine as they approached her, Irvine a short distance behind Zell. "I've been waiting for you to show up," she said more to Zell than Irvine.

"Sorry to keep you waiting," said Zell. "What do you need us to do?"

"Would you mind setting up the lights?" She pointed to the left. "There's a ladder over there that you can use, and then you just have to hang the lights over the bars up there." She pointed up.

"Sure thing," Zell said happily, going off to get the ladder.

Selphie and Irvine's eyes met for an awkward moment before Selphie broke the stare and left to set up something else.

Irvine sighed and went to help Zell with the ladder and lights.

-.-.-.-.-

Once the lights had been set up, Selphie went back over to the boys. "Nice job," she congratulated the two. "Now, if only Irvine were that proficient a boyfriend." She spoke to Zell, but was looking straight at Irvine.

Irvine furrowed his eyebrows with a tinge of hurt to his ego.

Zell quickly glanced back and forth between the two, wondering if he should say something or walk away and pretend he didn't hear anything.

"At least Seifer knows how to treat a girl right. It would do you good to use him as an example. I feel sorry for the next girl that you hook up with," Selphie went on as if she couldn't control herself, letting out all of the hurt that Irvine had caused her and putting it back on him.

"Uh . . . So Selphie, is there anything else you want us to-"

"Oh right, yeah, there is. Could you please help me take these boxes over to the other wall?"

Zell nodded and picked up one of the boxes, relieved that he had ended the conversation before it had a chance to escalate and grow like an unstoppable rolling snowball.

Selphie picked up a box too, and Irvine joined it.

Selphie scampered to catch up to Zell, whom was a little ways ahead of her. "You know what Seifer did for me yesterday?" she asked.

"Um . . ." Zell didn't really want to know nor did he really care, but he didn't want to hurt Selphie's feelings. "What?"

"He came all the way from a studying the Cactuar population on Cactuar Island to come here and see me for just a few minutes," she said, making sure that he said it within hearing range for Irvine. "I think all of my 'Save the Pupu' talk has been a great influence on him. Do you know what he said to me when he came all the way back here?"

Zell looked over his shoulder to where Irvine was listening intently to hear what Selphie would say. "Uh, what did he say?"

"He said that he couldn't stand being away from me for such a long time and that he just had to come back and see me!" Selphie beamed.

"Hasn't he only been gone for a few days?" asked Zell, confused as to why Seifer would say that he missed her after such a short time.

"Well, yeah, but that's how much he cares about me!" Selphie said very 'matter-of-factly'.

"Oh," Zell said as if he understood the logic behind Seifer's return.

Irvine couldn't believe how much Selphie was praising Seifer. They hadn't even been going out for that long a time. He scrunched up his face in disgust thinking about how Selphie could drop him so readily and move on so quickly. How could she?

Selphie noticed Irvine's look. "Why are you sulking Irvine; can't stand to hear the truth? That I'm in love with Seifer now? Get over it and move on. I'm not going to be coming back to you this time, or any time for that matter."

Zell was surprised by Selphie's change in moods. She must have been really mad at Irvine, but he really didn't understand the situation all that well. This time he decided that it would be better to just walk away and pretend that he hadn't heard anything. He put down his box and went to get another one.

"Irvine, why don't you just go and find someone else and stop moping around like it's the end of the world?" ordered Selphie.

Irvine became determined to stand up for himself now. Who did Selphie think she was, telling him how to live his life? She didn't know what he had been through since their break up, or anything related to how he was feeling now. "Well maybe I already have found someone else, did you ever think of that?" he nearly shouted at her.

Zell, who was in the middle of picking up a box, blushed a pretty pink colour.

Selphie was stunned silent for a moment; Irvine wasn't sure what she would say.

"Well, good. I'm glad!" she said finally and went to get another box.

Zell walked past Irvine with a worried look on his pink face. Irvine just watched him pass.

-.-.-.-.-

Later on that night Irvine lye awake in bed. He rolled over and rolled over again but he could fall asleep. His dream from earlier that morning was on his mind, making him unable to sleep. He glanced at his clock.

10:47pm.

Thirteen minutes before lights out. He wondered if he should quickly go to Zell's room and talk to him about it. Maybe he could help him decipher the dream. He threw off his sheets, jumped into some semi-suitable clothes, and dashed out of his dorm room to Zell's.

He knocked on the door.

Zell opened the door. The smiley face that he had had on before he opened the door disappeared when he saw who his visitor was. "What are you doing here? It's almost lights out."

"Hey, what's with the warm welcome?" Irvine asked sarcastically. "I know it's almost lights out, but I had a dream this morning and it's been on my mind ever since."

"So go to a psychic."

Irvine paused for a minute to consider the possibility of a psychic. Then he pushed his way past Zell and into the first room, which wasn't any cleaner than it had been before. "No, I don't need a psychic, I just wanted to tell you about it. Ya know, get it off my mind?"

"Okay," Zell agreed, "but make it fast."

"Okay, well I was in this tunnel with a blue carpet and I was walking down it, and I was the only one there, but then I saw this person up ahead and- What's the matter with you?"

Zell was wearing a miserable expression, which clearly indicated that he didn't really want to hear about Irvine's dream and that there was something on him mind as well.

"Huh? Oh, it doesn't matter how I feel, go on."

"Okay . . . Wait! What? Of course it matters, tell me what's wrong," Irvine urged.

"No, it's nothing," Zell assured, brushing a hand trough his hair. "If you don't hurry up and tell me, you will be kicked out of here before you finish what you wanna say."

"I'm not leaving until you tell me what's wrong," Irvine promised.

"Fine, get yourself kicked out of here by the guards than, I don't care." Zell took a step in the direction of his room, but was quickly pulled back around to face Irvine.

"What's with you? You weren't acting like this earlier."

"Well earlier you hadn't gone and made me pissed," Zell snapped.

"What? Me? What did I do?" asked Irvine, not understanding at all where Zell was coming from.

"Never mind, it's nothing. Let me go." Zell tugged on his arm, but Irvine kept a firm grip.

"Not until you tell me," he said more seriously this time.

Zell sighed. He obviously wasn't going to win this conversation. "Well, it's just that . . . I feel like I'm just a prop to you, like I'm just a way to get back at Selphie because she left you and has found someone new already."

"Is that what you think?" asked Irvine, relieved that the problem wasn't more serious. "Don't you think that if I was just using you to get back at Selphie that I would have told her that it was you that I'm with?"

Zell thought about the logic of the statement for a second before shrugging his shoulders. "Yeah, I suppose."

"See? There's nothing to worry about," Irvine comforted. "I'm not trying to get back at Selphie, she's just trying to make me feel sorry that she left me. I'm already past that stage." He waved a hand dismissingly through the air. "I just had to tell her that I was with someone else so that she would stop talking down to me and bragging about Seifer. That's all it was."

Zell nodded his understanding.

"All right?" asked Irvine.

"All right," Zell repeated.

"Good, because the last thing I want is for you to feel like you're being used." Irvine pulled the shorter boy into an embrace and lightly kissed the side of his tattooed face.

A knock on the door caused Irvine let go of Zell so that he could answer the door.

"Good evening, Zell. Lights out and all students in their dormitories."

"Since when have you been going around telling older students when to go to bed, Chayn?" asked Zell, slightly amused.

Irvine's eyes widened. Chayn? He had now become suspicious of the younger boy's every movement and motivation.

"Oh, only since Headmaster Cid asked me to do so yesterday," he replied. "I do, however, want to speak with you alone sometime when Irvine is not with you."

'How did he know I was in the room?' Irvine wondered bewilderedly.

"Sure," Zell agreed, oblivious to the warnings that Irvine was trying to give him from behind the door.

"Wonderful!" said Chayn, taking a step back. "Good night."

"Night." Zell closed the door and turned back to Irvine, who was now quite pale. "What?"

Irvine blinked out of his state. "Nothing, it's late, I should go."

"But you were going to tell me about your dream."

"I'll tell you another time, but please, don't talk to Chayn until I tell you about my dream okay?"

"O . . . kay?"

"Okay," Irvine repeated and gave Zell another quick kiss on the cheek before quickly dashing out the door and down the hall to his dorm, leaving Zell utterly confused.

Zell shrugged off Irvine's requests not to speak to Chayn. There was nothing wrong with the boy, he was just uber polite. What did Irvine care if Chayn talked to him anyway? Over protective much? If Chayn wanted to talk to Zell, then he would indulge the boy.

-.-.-.-.-

End of Part XII.