Chibi-Kari: Wow...I wrote this a really long time ago (years). There have just been a few edits and minor details added. I still don't own Ghost Hunt, but I do update just about as often as we get new chapters! LOL.

Alive

Chapter 1

He woke up with a flurry of movement, throwing off his covers and placing his over heated feet on the cool wood floor of his bedroom. He shivered slightly, tossing his black hair out of his face with a jerk of his head. It was extremely cold for February in England and the night air was seeping into his blue striped pyjamas causing him to shiver. But he couldn't focus on that, all he could do was look around in a blind panic.

"Gene, what's wrong?" A groggy voice rang out from the other end of the room as a lamp was turned on to reveal a mirror reflection of the panicked boy.

Bringing his slightly red hands in front of his face, he turned them back and forth, "This isn't right. What's going on?"

The other boy got out of bed and padded softly across the room towards his brother, "Gene. Did you see something?"

The sound of his brother's voice so close finally snapped him out of the fruitless examination of his hands, "Noll?" He blinked a few times just gazing at the identical image standing above him. It took him a few moments to realize the full implications of his brother standing in that particular room with him. "No, no, no, no, no." Gene stood quickly and pushed past his brother making his way into the hallway, ignoring the way the door slammed against the wall. His feet thudded softly across the carpeted hallway as he made his way for the ground floor.

He could vaguely hear the sound of alarmed voices in the hall he left behind as he rounded the corner and into the stairway, taking the stairs two by two.

"Noll, honey, what's wrong with Gene?" The soft feminine voice tore at Gene's heart and brought tears to his eyes but that couldn't stop him. He felt himself exhale in relief as he made the final dash to the front door.

"I don't know, mother. He woke up in a state." The voice of his twin echoed through the house.

He was steps from the front door when his father's office door opened right in front of him. An older man came out, his black hair peppered with gray-lighter than Gene remembered it being, and stood in front of him blinking heavily. He had obviously fallen asleep at his desk again. "Gene, what's going on?"

The footsteps that followed him down the stairs came to a stop behind him and he turned to see his mother and brother staring at him jumping slightly as his father's hand came to rest on his shoulder.

"Come on son; let's get a cuppa in you. You'll feel better." His strong commanding voice was one thing Gene had missed, but this...whatever it was wasn't right. He didn't understand how he got here. And a cup of tea certainly wouldn't make him feel any better, not when he had no idea what was going on.

His father gently pushed him the opposite direction of the front door towards the kitchen where his mother had run off to as soon as his father said the word 'cuppa'. It was a silent and solemn short walk that vaguely reminded him of a funeral march. But this wasn't one because he was still alive. Gene suddenly had the urge to burst out into hysterical laughter. He was supposed to be dead not walking down a hallway to have a cuppa with his brother and father and the irony wasn't lost on him.

He was quickly thrust into one of the wooden chairs, that his mother had claimed was nostalgic of an older time, with a steaming cup of tea sitting in front of him. Three teaspoons of sugar and a splash of 1% milk, just how he liked it. Gene stared in wonder at his family sitting across from him silently. It was surreal to see them after so long-looking at him like he was the crazy one.

His mother's blue eyes looked at him sadly, "Was it another one of those dreams, dear?"

"One of those dreams?" He questioned blankly. What the hell was going on?

"A ghost needing help moving on?" She looked equal parts confused and concerned at his puzzled expression.

Gene leaned back as realization swept over him. He always did have horrible nightmares when a spirit needed help, but that was before he died. Before Mai.

Her name echoing in his head snapped him back into his original panic, "No. No, of course not. This isn't right! What's going on? I should be dead! What did she do!?"

"What do you mean you should be dead? What's wrong with you tonight?" Oliver's eyes narrowed, his voice was strained and severe.

"When I went to Japan there was a car. I died." Gene leaned over the table focusing on his twin, pleading for him to verify his death.

"When you went to Japan? That was two years ago, Gene, and I know for a fact that you didn't die. You came back. You're sitting right in front of me, for crying out loud!" His brother intoned harshly.

Two years. Gene studied his brother for a moment and could see it. Instead of a seventeen year old boy sitting in front of him there was a nineteen year old man calmly staring back at him. Or as calmly as was possible when your twin brother was claiming he had died years before. There was no real hiding Noll's anxiety, his lips pressed in a hard line and his hands clutched together so firmly that his fingers were turning white. Gene felt guilt seep in when he glanced at the anxious forms of his family, but that didn't do anything to quell the panic he felt.

"You had a bad dream, son." His father shook him slightly and strained what was meant to be an encouraging smile.

But all Gene could do was shake his head in denial. "No. No, I didn't. She did this. Oh God, how did she do this? Where is she?"

"Who, love?" His mother tried to ease his growing panic with a soothing voice she wasn't quite managing. His entire family shared another uneasy look. And their obvious unease was only making Gene feel worse.

"Mai! Oh God I need to find Mai! She can't be alone." Gene held his head in his hands pulling on the dark strands harshly, trying to urge himself to think.

"Who's Mai?" Noll's voiced the question before glancing at their parents and meeting their equally blank features. His brother hadn't ever mentioned this girl.

Gene couldn't bring himself to answer. The idea of his brother not knowing Mai was almost painful. She was the girl that lit up Noll's world during that bleak depression that steamed from his death. Although his brother would never admit it, Gene knew all too well that Noll had loved her and if he hadn't been obsessed with finding Gene things would have gone differently. Oliver wouldn't have taken that plane to England and closed the office permanently.

In a moment of hysterical dramatics, Gene placed his head on the table and did the only thing he could bring himself to do: deny the situation and hope it went away.

Sometime during his denial he must have fallen asleep as the next thing he knew light was shining on the wooden table and his brother was having a hushed conversation with someone.

"He just kept repeating that he should be dead and there was some girl and this was obviously her fault."

"A girl?" A deep voice questioned softly and it took Gene a moment to realize it was their Chinese co-worker, Lin. Gene hoped against all hopes that somehow Lin would remember Mai. Whatever she had done shouldn't be able to change the memories of his familiars, thus giving him some reminder of the small girl no matter how small. They were outside the realm of time that humans were tied to. Lin just had to remember.

"Maya…or Mea. Wait no Mai. Yes, that's what he called her and he was babbling about Japan." Noll had obviously been more shaken than Gene first considered since he was missing facts as simple as a name. That was something the idiot scientist really hated...forgetfulness, "Do you think it could be pre-cognitive? Should we watch out for this girl?"

There was a moment of silence and Gene prayed that something was coming back to the tall man, "No, I don't think so. From what you said he seems to believe that this girl is the reason he's alive."

His brother hummed contemplatively, "That's true."

There was a rustle of movement before it died down again and Gene could hear the click of a teacup on the counter, "It would seem to me that he's having a bit of a breakdown."

"I'm not!" Gene stood up catching both men off guard as his chair fell to the ground with a hard thump. "She's real and I have to find her!"

Noll shook his head slightly, "Gene you aren't making any sense. Why do you need to find this girl?"

"She needs me! Whatever she did to bring me back leaves her alone! I can't leave her alone."

"Why can't she be alone? Explain this to me, Gene! How do you even know this girl exists! You just keep claiming you were dead!" Noll's voice boomed through the kitchen. Gene had never had a row like this before with his brother and it was slightly jarring to hear Noll, his stoic and together brother, raise his voice.

"I know this, Oliver, because I was her spirit guide. And why can't she be alone you ask? Because she can't control her powers and they're growing too rapidly. What she did, whatever she did, to bring me back to life was with good intentions I'm sure, but it can kill her."

Lin stepped forward, "How rapidly are they growing?" His research was in growth of powers and he had helped Noll learn to control his at a young age. Of course Lin would show interest in this. Gene idly wondered why Lin hadn't tried to help her when they knew each other. He could only attribute it to Noll's mad obsession. It probably blinded Lin too. Or maybe it was Mai's secretive nature. Either way it was fruitless to follow that train of thought.

"Too fast and too many. Within two months of astral projection on to the spiritual plane she was able to pass a physical object to someone on the physical plane." It still amazed Gene to think of how she handed that key to Masako. He hadn't expected her to be able to do that and lately he had noticed that Mai was starting to phase through objects while awake. It was dangerous that her spiritual powers were so vast that they were starting to interfere with her everyday life.

"She can apport? Are you sure?" Lin seemed dubious. It was general understanding that being able to apport was a rare ability that very few had seen in person. No one in the entire British SPR had seen one. Or at least that Lin and Noll could remember.

"She doesn't only apport but she can project herself, is a medium, and a clairvoyant among other things."

"That's impossible, Gene. Are you sure you didn't just dream her up?" Noll shook his head slightly. It was a strange mix of abilities and possessing one alone is rare but adding them in a list was one in a billion.

Gene could feel the anger for his brother bubble within him and he could tell by the widening of his brother's eyes that he could too, "I didn't dream her up and I need to find her before she walks through a bloody wall and gets stuck!"

"Calm down, Gene." His father's voice made him jump slightly as he turned to face the man that had raised him, "Where would she be?"

"Japan. She was in Shibuya, Tokyo. You believe me? I need to find her." Gene was getting desperate. He almost wished he had the entire day to do over. Almost because he would rather go back to the way things were. Back to when he was, sadly, not alive but was able to keep an eye on her. But if he had the day again, he wouldn't have made such a big deal; he would have just gone back to Tokyo, found her, and brought her forcibly back to England with him. Easy, end of story, and no one would have realized there was something wrong. He just had to find her, bring her back, and protect her.

Martin held up his hand stopping his son's train of thought, "You say that you need to find her, so we'll find her. What's her name? How old is she?"

"Taniyama Mai. She would be 18."

"What about her parents? Where would she be?"

"She doesn't have parents." Suddenly a thought struck Gene, "Oh God! If she brought me back she might have erased all signs of herself! I don't know where she'd be hiding or if she's even okay!"

His father remained calm, "If she's 18 chances are she's enrolled in a school and even if she did bring you back she couldn't change her name and age. Her birth, in theory, would be too important."

Gene narrowed his eyes. His father didn't believe him, but at least he would look for her. Once he found her he could fix this. "Let me go look for her while you search records for her."

"No, Gene. With the state you're in I don't want you wandering around Japan looking for some girl. I can only imagine the trouble you'd find yourself in. I let you gallivant off to Japan once and your mother still hasn't forgiven me." His father shook his head decisively.

"I'm nineteen and legally you can't keep me here." Gene challenged his father for the first time in his life. Out of the corner of his eye he could see his brother studying him closely.

"I can legally keep you here as you don't have a penny to your name. How do you suggest getting on a plane and flying there if you don't have money?" His father always was one step ahead.

"Dad, I'll go with him. Lin and I." The Chinese man's eyes widened as he focused on Noll, "I've always wanted to open a branch of the ESPR. Now would be a good time and Japan has some interesting ideas with the entire ghost curse superstition. We can research if there is any truth to that. It'll make a good scholarly article for next year's journal at the very least."

Martin looked contemplatively at his level headed son as Gene glanced between them. "One year, Gene. You have one year to try and find this girl and then you forget about it. Noll you have one year to get the branch up and running and then you are to hire a staff to take over. Your mother would kill me if I allowed you two to stay over there longer than that. In fact, she'll probably kill me for allowing this much. Lin, are you okay with this?"

He was silent for a moment, his hatred for the Japanese was something deeply ingrained but Noll and Gene obviously needed him. He sighed heavily, "We're going to Japan."

Noll nodded curtly before looking at his brother closely. He didn't believe him, but he knew Gene too well. No matter what anyone said, he was going to end up in Japan and Noll couldn't take the chance that it was somehow a pre-cognitive dream.

TBC