Author's Notes: I forgot to thank Akai - chan in the last chapter. She helped me get most of that chapter out so fast. ::Hugs:: Akai-chan. Thank you! Anyway, I’m deciding to get started on this at about one in the morning. I’m a night-owl what can I say? If you could see what I look like when I writing most of these things you would back away. ::Selphie takes cue to use her video camera capturing a slightly tall teenage girl, sitting in a computer chair with only one arm and a tilting back that comes off at a whim now. She’s wear mismatched pajamas, a redish-pink shirt and blue boxers with kitties and fishbowls on them. She’s propped up in the an indescribable position, balancing a vase-shaped beer glass filled with diet Sunkist between her thighs and thumping out a random song from DDR on her rib cage.:: The hell-::Looks up after tapping her ribs a bit too hard and glares at Selphie who’s oddly enough only in her mind o.o:: Well, ::cough:: onto the fic.

Enigmatic Hatred

Part 7

By Shade

So many dead and he hadn’t seen a single body. Squall finished polishing his gunblade and leaned over, opening the box and placing it carefully inside. It wasn’t that he wanted to see a body. Quite the opposite in fact. He did however think that knowing how the attacker killed might help their pursuit. Squall sighed and leaned forward, glancing into the bedroom.

Ellone and Rinoa were fast asleep in the bed, Squall having relinquished his sleeping space long ago. They had been asleep when he had come home anyway. The brunette had spent the entire day in a briefing, an extremely drawn out briefing. The attacks had gotten worse and Cid was seriously considering sending all of the students home. Unfortunately it seemed that most students and parents alike thought this as a sort of test and refused to accept the return of their children lightly. Most younger students had been sent home but the fact remained that at least of the a third of the students had stayed behind.

Now Cid was calling in action. SeeDs were to patrol the halls at all hours and Squall just happened to be assigned the 10-1 shift. Remembering this, Squall tilted forward a bit more then stood to see the clock on the nightstand. 9:51! Squall had made a point to go see Seifer some time before he was scheduled for his rounds. He had promised to see him today after their last encounter. With the surprise meeting he hadn’t had a chance. Hastily Squall opened the gunblade box once more and lifted it in his hands as he hurried out the door.

“Seifer,” Squall breathed a sigh of relief as the blonde finally opened the door. He had been knocking for a while now and was slightly nervous that he wouldn’t receive an answer at all.

Seifer now stood in the doorway, clothes wrinkled and looking as though he had opted to go to bed early. He seemed a bit surprised by Squall’s sudden presence and moved to the side to allow him to enter.

“Thanks,” Squall felt himself growing nervous, recalling what had been said last time they were together in this dorm “Sorry I didn’t come over sooner, I was in a meeting all day. I have to leave in a few minutes.”

Seifer’s eyes traveled down to the gunblade in his hand “Monster hunting huh?”

Squall nodded “It was going to happen sooner or later.” Squall carefully propped the gunblade against the chair.

Seifer didn’t look too pleased with this confirmation. He was too busy remembering his own encounter with the “attacker”. “Do you know what it is?”

“No, but Headmaster-”

“Then how does he expect you to get rid of it!” Seifer snapped causing Squall to jump. Seifer forced a smile “-er, I guess what I’m trying to say is, watch your ass out there.”

Squall stifled a laugh “Thanks for the sentiment,” he leaned forward, testing his boundaries to see if Seifer wasn’t so angry with him that he wouldn’t give him a hug. Squall was pleased to find a return of his own embrace and added “I think I’ll be fine. Anything with half a brain wouldn’t show and even if it did chances are that a group of SeeDs can handle it.”

The forced smile became a bit nervous though Squall couldn’t see his face right now. Seifer pulled the young man closer and rested his chin on his head “Cocky aren’t we? Look, just because there hasn’t been a big threat since Ul-...you know...That doesn’t mean that a knew threat couldn’t come along.”

Squall paused a moment, listening to what Seifer said. He couldn’t help but enjoy the fact that Seifer was concerned about him. It was just something nice to hear...though the pleasure might be a bit sadistic...Squall moved away at last but kept his arms around Seifer “I think I’ve got to go,” he said, eyes scanning for a clock. He was sure that a good many of the SeeDs from his group were already in the hallways.

Seifer pulled away and walked to the chair where the gunblade was propped. “Fine,” he said a bit reluctantly, sitting down in the chair.

Sqaull smiled once more, comparing Seifer with a pouting child. “If you’ll let me-” Squall moved his gunblade to balance against one hand and sat upon the chair arm “I’ll come back here when I’m finished.”

“Why would you do that?”

Squall blinked a bit startled by the response “I-ah-”

Seifer smiled as his reaction and pulled the brunette into his lap, bending in for a kiss.

Squall laughed out loud at the gesture, the first time Seifer had heard him do so. Tilting his head back on the opposite chair arm Squall finally caught site of the clock. 10:06. Shit! “I’ve got to go!” Squall sat up with a start, struggling awkwardly to get to the floor and at last tripping onto the ground. Standing and grabbing his gunblade he looked back to Seifer who was watching the entire scenario with a slightly amused expression. “Bye,” Squall leaned over and after giving Seifer a goodbye kiss left in a rush.

Seifer changed the channel by hand. He was nervous and there was nothing on television to take his mind off it. Settling on a late night movie he leaned back in the chair. You shouldn’t be so worried, he thought to himself. Of course this didn’t ease his tension. He had a bad feeling about this that didn’t seem to quell.

Letting out an annoyed groan he propped his head up with one hand and then immediately shifted positions a few times. With a second groan he tilted his head and glanced at the clock in the next room.11:32. When was Squall supposed to get back here anyway. He shifted positions again and looked back to the television then again to the clock. “Agh, that’s it,” standing he switched off the television and took his coat from the back of the chair. Slipping it on he left the dorm.

“How many SeeDs did the Headmaster call in?” Squall asked the blonde walking at his side. They were in quite the large group of SeeDs. At least twenty males and females were walking before them. What baffled Squall was that this wasn’t even the entire group. There were at least two other groups patrolling the halls at this moment.

“I think he called just about all of em’ who weren’t busy,” Zell looked over the crowd. The number of SeeDs had truly increased after the battle with the sorceress. There was moment of silence between them until Zell couldn’t take it anymore “This is boring.”

Squall didn’t answer. Inwardly he agreed but he couldn’t bring himself to say it.

“Selphie warned me,” Zell was used to not always receiving responses from Squall in conversation “She had a shift earlier, said nothing happened. Just walked around for three hours.”

“Well-” Squall was cut off by several shouts up ahead. Tensing he drew his gunblade at ready and watched as SeeDs flooded forward. Seeing the young martial artist beside him go charging he made a grab for his shoulder “Wait!” he caught the black of the blue uniform just in time. The surge of SeeDs was beginning to draw back and as the crowd cleared off a bit it was clear that around four of the graduates had dropped to the ground.

Squall strained his eyes to see what had happened. Was that the attacker? He asked himself seeing a dark form pass through the bodies. Squall tightened his grip on his weapon. There were no features on the form, it was simply mass of darkness. As it caught up with two more of the SeeDs Squall noticed that it would momentarily take the form of its victim before...Squall swallowed...

The form had caused another four to fall. Squall looked to Zell. He seemed to be looking somewhere besides the creature but unable to move.

Squall followed his eyes and saw a young SeeD who had the flustered, terrified look of a youth who had just graduated. He had drawn away to press himself against a wall, hands shaking and breathing heavily at the approach of the dark thing before him. Upon closer inspection Sqaull realized what Zell clearly had, his hands weren’t shaking, they were pulling out a spell drawn earlier. One that looked suspiciously like-”Not in the hallway!” Squall yelled as loud as he could, rushing forward in hopes of stopping the boy.

It was too late, the force of Ultima filled the hallways, the narrowness of where they stood causing the spell to grow outwards. Squall watched the people thrown backwards by the blast and within moments it hit him as well. The brunette squeezed his eyes shut and lifted his arms in an attempt to shield himself but he was tossed into the air with ease and in several drawn out seconds he landed on something sharp.

This was ridiculous. Seifer stopped at the side of one wall. Leaning against the wall he glanced about for a clock. He hadn’t been out long but he was already beginning to feel like an idiot. Squall was right. Anything with half a brain wouldn’t be in the halls with all of these SeeDs patrolling...which made him question why he was out here...Just go back to your room, Seifer told himself. It seemed the only wise thing to do.

He was about to follow his own advice when a large sound similar to an explosion filled the hallways. Seifer didn’t think twice before racing towards the noise. He hurried through the dorm halls, through the circular walkway and down the library hallway where he saw-What had happened? Seifer tensed as he looked around. More SeeDs than he could count lined the hallway. A majority of them seemed fairly unharmed though unconscious and sporting quite a few large red welts that would soon become bruises. The ones who hadn’t been so lucky looked as though they had been thrown back against the walls by force, some had even been struck by lost weapons. Seifer felt a bit nauseous. It was obvious that there had been an explosion and with SeeDs, the majority of which were armed with something sharp, made that a dangerous situation. The blonde noted this as he tried to keep his eyes away from a young female who’s eyes were open and vacant, the steely hilt of a throwing knife protruding from her throat.

Seifer felt a rush of panic as he realized what he had come all the way out here for. Quickly he scanned the crowd. Please don’t let me find Squall. It took only moments for his eyes to fall upon a familiar face. The blonde hurried, stepping over bodies and coming to an abrupt stop before a figure crumpled against the wall “Zell!” he demanded, lifting up the martial artist’s head.

Almost immediately the young man before him let out a slight groan but didn’t stir. He was fine, just out like a light “Zell!” he demanded again, relieved he hadn’t stumbled upon another corpse “Where’s Squa-” Seifer was stopped as he caught something at the corner of his eye, not too far away he spotted Squall’s gunblade and right beside it was- Seifer felt a lack of words as he released the tattooed man beside him and stood. Heart racing he approached Squall and looked him over.

The brunette was lying on his side, one arm outstretched in the direction of his gunblade, the other resting at the blood stained area near his stomach from which the tip of a katana extended. The katana clearly belonged to the unconscious young man behind him but Seifer could care less of details at this point. Dropping to his knees he reached forward, desperate to find a pulse. However, he never got close enough to tell.

He reeled to the side as a well aimed kick sent him to the ground. Dazed for a moment he opened his eyes to see a group of angry SeeDs. They must have been from one of the other groups. He didn’t have time to deal with this now, Squall- Wincing slightly he attempted to sit up, only to be met with a second kick.

“I knew you were to blame!” the man above him shouted and several others growled their agreement.

They think I-Seifer couldn’t bare to finish that thought and found himself at a lack of breath as the man pulled him up and into a somewhat-sitting position. He would have struggled but a feeling of light-headedness prevented him from doing much, instead his eyes fell upon Squall. A female SeeD was currently running her hands over the katana as though playing with the idea of pulling it out. Seifer wanted to say something, anything. He opened his mouth to speak but the connection of the butt of a rifle to his head made sure that he was just as audible as any other wounded SeeD.

A/N: Whew, that’s another chapter. I’ll start working on the next one soon. Er, this one might not be the best...I find myself apologizing for chapters often don’t I...>.>. Anyway ^-^;. I hope it was decent...oh, and to Alexiel...MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!-that’s all I have to say.

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