(I do not own any of these characters, in QAF or Final Fantasy 8! Yaoi References ahead!)

BY KATIE DAY

CHAPTER 1 : SQUALL AND ZELL NAKED? OR IS IT?

"So what you're saying is that this machine could POSSIBLY...MAYBE...bring forth things from the unknown?" Xu asked the thoughtful Professor Cid at her side. Before them sat a large black mechanism that was made up of a sphere in the middle, six pumps on either side, all attached to what appeared to be a large round mirror frame. It was strange what one could find in the deepest confines of a garden. It only made since that there were some unheard of secrets-nothing was really surprising after they discovered the garden could actually fly.
"Yes... Or something of that sort...," he said, adjusting his glasses a moment. He then took them off to clean them.
"And why do you think that?"
"Well... It makes sense."
"How...? What's the proof?" Xu asked, crossing her arms and leaning to one side.
"Well... Who's to say it DOESN'T bring things forth from the unknown?" Cid asked after a moment of lost silence. "What else would a contraption like this do?"
"Dry cleaning?? I don't know, Professor..," the girl replied with a rub of her head. "You always taught us to demand proof before believing anything."
"And it's good advice...," Cid nodded, replacing his glasses. "Truthfully... It reminds me of something I once saw on The Twilight Zone."
"Sir, if I may... The Twilight Zone is also a show that considers an ATM to actually mean A Time Machine..."
"It could happen! Where's the open mind I taught you to have?"
"I don't know, sir. Maybe it got swallowed by the bringer of things from the unknown..." Cid was about to make a response when Edea descended on the elevator and opened the gate to step out. Glancing around, she looked and, seeing them, went to join them.
"Here you are. Oh! What's this? A Bringer Forther of Things from the Unknown??" she asked, examining the large black contraption. Xu blinked and Cid smiled triumphantly, placing an arm around Edea affectionately and proudly.
"I knew it," he said. Edea looked to him and then to the machine again.
"This is a very archaic machine...," she said after a moment. "I wonder how it got hidden down here."
"So it CAN bring forth things from the unknown then?" Cid asked. The former sorceress nodded.
"Just about anything really. But I believe this particular machine is far to old to really control WHAT you bring in. For all we know it might summon in some dark overlord or something horrible." (That's what I get for watching Howard the Duck before writing this fic...)
"Okay. So we leave the Bringer Forther of Things alone. There's safer things we could be doing-like going on missions and getting shot at," Xu said with a nod.
"Yes. It'd probably be best if you just disposed of it. We don't need to start bringing more troubles into this world when we're just recovering from the last," Edea agreed. Cid bowed his head a moment and nodded, patting his wife's shoulder absently. "Now, come back up. We have to welcome the new SeeD students to the garden."
"Oh, yes. More angsty teenagers looking for a way to express themselves violently..."
"Dear...," Edea chuckled. Cid gave a smile and the two headed for the elevator. Xu glanced back at the machine a moment shook her head before following.
"Better hope no one finds their way down here and tinkers with that thing..."

Despite Xu's initial worry about some sorry fellow finding his way down and accidently bringing something immensely scary and dangerous in the world, she had confidence no one was that stupid. Besides-who would go lurking down in the basement of the garden anyway.
Of course, when Xu was thinking of stupid people-she didn't include GFs. Not that the GFs were stupid-but they could be curious, especially little ones that resembled Pokemon...like Carbunkle. And it was on this fateful day that the little turquoise creature poked his cute little nose in the crack of the elevator door, smelling something particularly interesting. With a little squiggle he managed to flop his way into the elevator, causing it to sense the movement and request a floor to move to.
Carbunkle cocked a long ear and his little gem on his forehead shone a moment. The elevator reacted then and moved downward to the basement, opening it's doors automatically once at the bottem. The GF crawled out curiously, sniffing around and then floating toward the old black machine. It still had radiation of aged magic faintly swirling around it, and Carbunkle easily realized this had been what caught his attention a moment ago.
"Meeya..," he chirped lightly, sitting in front of the black ball. Tilting his head a moment after no response from this creature, he tried to reach out in other ways. The red gem shone a moment brightly-and that little touch of magic was enough to send the machine into a pumping and noisy frenzy. The GF was so startled he tumbled backward with a squeal. The "mirror" frame had just begun to spin wildly as Selphie, chasing the GF, came down on the elevator just in time to see it. Upon stepping out of the elevator she was greeted by the small GF clinging to her face in surprise. With a muffled protest, she jerked him off and held him as her eyes wandered easily to the flashing and breezy event taking place.
There came a blinding flash of white light that forced Selphie to close her eyes. When she re-opened them, the machine was winding down with a lowering hum. Carbunkle crawled up around to sit on her head as she cautiously ventured forward.
"What is this thing...?" she asked no one aloud. Coming around the large sphere of the machine she stepped in front of where the frame had been spinning and her eyes grew wide. Very wide. So wide, they almost popped right out of her head.
"Oooooohh...boy..."

"Where's Instructor Trepe?"
"Dunno. Though I did hear an announcement earlier about a teacher being called to the Infirmary... Maybe it was her," Zell replied, putting a generous amount of ketchup and mustard on his hot-dog. Squall narrowed his eyes some at the blonde's rather piglet attitude towards weeners. He was awful obsessed with them. After a moment he shook his head and rose from the table. "Mphmhpmh."
"Don't talk with your mouth full," Squall said, turning and leaving Zel with his cheeks stuffed. Proceeding down to the main hall and past a few of the meandering SeeDs, he sighed. It was about that time again when they got about a ton of new recruits. New people-no experience. And they were apt to ask him a lot of questions and, well, he never felt much like showing people around or playing 20 questions. He hadn't really changed much. He was still quiet and pretty sulky and liked to hang around in his room until Zell would drag him out somewhere. Why he let himself be dragged, he wasn't all that sure.
And what about Rinoa? Well, Rinoa got kind of annoyed at the SeeD...very easily. Through their initial relationship she had been bouncy and attempting everything in her power to make him laugh or smile. Apparently, though, she got sick of this act once all the main troubles were gone and she didn't think Squall had any reason to be depressed. So, in short, after a heated, and one sided argument, she left and took her business elsewhere.
Squall wasn't sure about what to think of it. Things had SEEMED to be going alright. But he was going to be damned if he was going to prance around like a fairy queen giddy and happy when he just WASN'T for her sake. She must have not loved him so much if she couldn't stand him after less than a year. Oh, well. Now there was time for business and things he felt more comfortable dealing with. Like silence, brooding and smacking things with his gunblade. Oh yeah, baby.
Stepping into the Infirmary he glanced around and noticed Quistis sitting by one of two separate, occupied beds. He stepped toward the door, causing it to open, it's wooshing sound making the instructor turn around in question. Squall stepped in and crossed his arms, not saying anything. He never said anything first. He was cool like that... Oh, yeah.
But Quistis didn't say anything, at least not immediately. She glanced back and forth between him and the person in the bedside she by. Squall, thrown off by this silence, gave it up and spoke first.
"What's wrong with you?" he asked.
"...I...er...I...think I'm seeing things," she said finally. Squall meandered over to the end of the bed, still looking at her.
"What do you mean...," he asked, slowly turning to look at the man in the bed. The image made him tilt his head with a cocked brow. This person lying unconcious before him had quite the striking resemblance to himself. The dark hair was trimmed shorter in areas and maybe his shoulders were a little broader, but... "What the hell is this?"
"I'm not sure. I was called down here because they said they found you in the Garden's basement completely naked and unconcious with Zell Dincht." She leaned toward him a bit and spoke lowly. "That was a rather...interesting picture."
"Stop it. And what do you mean Zell? Zell is in the dining hall." Quistis wordlessly gestured to the other bed and Squall took a glance at it. Sure enough, this second figure was fairly close to being Zell himself, but had calmer hair and no black tattoo on his face.
"You couldn't tell it wasn't me??" he asked Quistis, a bit agitated.
"I had my doubts... The missing scar was a hint... But I couldn't explain it otherwise..."
"This is insane. Where did these people come from?"
"I don't know, Squall. If I did I would have told you by now." Squall was not amused. He was so not amused it wasn't funny. He put on his best, "I am not amused" face to get his point across, which pretty much looked the same as the last face. This was a sick joke. For some reason he immediately felt like accusing Seifer. Seifer had a bad sense of humor. Scapegoat, scapegoat for the horror!
As he stood stewing in his inner monologue, Quistis staring at him, the blond boy in the second bed stirred. He sat up slowly with a groan, rubbing his face, the other hand grasping the sheets over himself. He opened an eye and rest the other hand in his lap, looking around. Okay. Nothing looked familiar. What the hell had he been doing? Why was he in what looked like a hospital?? He was relieved when he saw someone he recognized.
"Brian, where are we?" he asked, looking at Squall. "And what the hell are you wearing?" Squall blinked and looked at Quistis who shrugged.
"I'm not..." He was cut off as the blonde wrapped himself in the sheet and came to stand by him closely. In Squall's personal bubble even.
"What happened to your face??" Justin asked, reaching up to touch the scar. "God, I would have throught you'd be freaking out over this. I mean. You wanted to kill yourself just for aging a year!"
"What?" Squall asked incredulously
"And your hair got longer. How long was I out??" Squall was flustered for no apparent reason at this point and couldn't bring himself to find any words and just kind of sputtered like an idiot for a moment. He was saved, though, as the second man moaned and rolled over in his bed, smashing the side of his face into the pillow. This made Justin look over at the familiar sound. It was his turn to do a double take now, between Squall and the actual Brian. "What the hell??" he exclaimed.
"Shut the -fuck-- up... I'm sleeping," Brian said, not bothering to open his eyes. Justin looked at Squall who made a face and said nothing. It was obvious to him who was Brian-Brian at this point. He scooted away from the clone and moved towards the ad-exec slowly, shaking his shoulder without taking his eyes off the two strangers. "What the fuck..?"
Brian snatched Justin's arm and looked at him, annoyed. He was about to scold the blonde but was distracted by the feeling of two other stares on him. Still gripping Justin's wrist, he turned his head slowly to look between Quistis, Squall, and the different surroundings. His arrogant gaze finally rested on Squall, who stared back in a more bewildered manner.
"Okay... Who the hell is that...And why the hell does he look like me?" Brian finally asked calmly.
"I don't know! I just woke up!" Justin replied. Brian was quiet a moment. Not only had he been forced awake, in a place that WASN'T his loft (therefore meaning he had gotten taken somewhere else and drugged and laid by someone who he didn't want to get laid by because WHY THE HELL else would he have not been in his loft-stupid asshole people taking advantage of his beautiful self-they would die! Die die die a painful un-beautiful death they would!), and there was a guy trying to steal his image, even to the point of LOOKING like him! It was a crime! The bitch didn't even know how to dress himself! Two belts, criss-crossed over your ass? Fuck-he should put the poor fool out of his misery!
But no matter how pissed off he was getting inside, Brian Kinney remained his ever casual self on the exterior. He slid out of the bed and stood up, butt-naked, to the wide-eyes of Squall and Quistis. He glanced between them and stood in his normal sensual way.
"What...? Never seen a cock before?" he asked lowly, lifting his hands slightly.
"Ohhh..," Quistis said, unable to break her gaze.
"Are you...crazy? Cover up!" Squall added, exasperated, starting to turn beet red in the face. Brian held up his arms, mouth open in a "with what" sort of statement.
"Hey. If you're going to abuse me while I'm out, the least you can do is have some clothes ready for me when I get up," he said, advancing towards Squall. For a moment, the SeeD thought the man was going to tackle him over, but Brian just brushed past him, stopping by his side and leaning over to whisper, " Sicko..." Then, much to the dismay of Quistis and Squall, he wandered straight out of the ward and into the halls, bare naked to the world as if it never even mattered. There were a couple squeals and eventually Quistis and her student looked back to Justin, who was still standing there. He shrugged mildly, still wrapped in the sheet.
"...Well... he had a point..."

END CHAPTER 1