THE ZELL DINCHT COLLECTION

WARNINGS

1) I do not own Zell, Squall, Rinoa, Irvine, Seifer, Selphie, Irvine, Quistis, or any other character I may mention from the FF8 series. I may add some more characters, which are mine. If you steal them, I probably won't find out about it. I also do not own most of the towns, monsters, etc… used in this story.

2) This was written cause Zell is the coolest character ever to be created in the FF series. It's rated NC-17 for mostly sex, but there's also some language and violence.

3) This is a yaoi story. If you are offended by yaoi or don't know what it is, I suggest you leave. You have been warned.

Ok think I got everything. Just read it and leave me some feedback. If you flame me I'll find it funny, so do whatever the hell makes you feel good.

CHAPTER 30: My Final Heaven

"ZOE!" Zell yelled in is head. The fall knocked the wind out of him, but his breaths were slowly returning to normal. His lips were refusing to listen to his brain. The pelting rain was bringing him back to reality, as the cloudiness started to drain out of his head.

"ghoe…twoh," Zell mumbled, finally being able to hear himself. The soldiers a few feet ahead of him couldn't hear his sounds though, as the bullets continued to rip over his head. With the mixture of thunder and gunfire, Zell doubted he'd ever be able to get their attention.

"Squall! It's Squall Leonhart!" a nearby soldier yelled out in surprise. The gunfire suddenly slowed, as more soldiers came over to inspect the body.

"He's just unconscious," a voice Zell recognized as Selphie, sighed in relief. "There were four of them. They might be near by." With that, the SeeDs took their attention off the fortress, and dropped their eyes to the ground.

"Zoe…Zoe…" Zell was finally able to say softly. He knew he wasn't coherent, but he was hoping someone would even hear the mumblings. Leaning his head to the side, Zell saw the raindrops fall off of Zoe's scythe. If only she could hear him.

"Cura!" Selphie yelled. A bright blue light made Zell squint, as they attempted to bring Squall back.

"Zoe…Zoe…Zoe," Zell kept trying.

"Shhh…Did you hear that?" one of the soldiers quieted.

"Zoe…Zoe," the blonde mumbled louder with new hope. He coughed loudly afterwards, as he used up too much air.

"Zell!" Zoe finally recognized. The blonde was filled with joy as she turned in his direction. "Where are you?"

"Here," Zell muttered weakly with another cough. The moonlit scythe finally came over top of him, and Zoe leaned down to face him.

"Zell…" she said with a smile.

"My legs hurt." It was a stupid thing to say, but worn and beaten, Zell wasn't exactly in the right frame of mind to be an intellectual.

"Can you stand?"

"I don't thin…think so."

"HE'S ALIVE!" Selphie suddenly screamed a few yards away. Looking to the side, Zell saw Squall sitting up and trying to regain his breath.

"Selphie! Come Here!" Zoe yelled, and the cheery brunette quickly obliged.

"ZELL!" she smiled, looking down on Zoe's discovery. Seeing his emerald eyes open, she knew he would be all right. "What hurts?"

"Everything from here down," the blonde said, motioning to his hip.

"Well here, drink this," Zoe cried, tossing him a potion

Slowly, Zell lowered the beaker and took a sip. It tasted awful, but he could already feel some strength returning to him. "AAAHHH!" he suddenly cried, as a bolt of pain spread through every nerve of his body. A bright blue flash blinded him, and the pain vanished as soon as it had come. "What the hell was that!" Zell yelled, surprised in his voice volume.

"Cura," Selphie laughed. "Can you sit up?

"Damn you and you're spells," he hissed. Slowly, the blonde realized a great deal of pain and soreness vanished from his body, and sat up. His legs still stung with a nagging soreness, but other then that he felt fine. The potion gave him more and more strength as he sipped it, and he almost felt ready to go. He watched Squall dizzily get to his feet, and walk over to them.

"We need to get going," the brunette muttered as if he was never hurt at all. "Irvine flew over there against the fortress somewhere, but I don't know about Seifer."

"He's over there," Zell pointed. "We need to find them before those Timber bastards do."

"Selphie, pick a party and bring back Irvine," Squall commanded. "I'm coming with you to find Puma."

"So am I," Zoe agreed.

"Is Nida here?" Squall asked, looking around.

"Yeah!" the SeeD called nearby.

"Grab a party and find Seifer," the brunette ordered. "The townspeople left the fissure. They might be trying to run again. We gotta move."

"Roger!" Selphie cheered, and broke off with some SeeDs towards the fortress. Nida nodded as well, and broke off with some other people.

Finishing his potion, Zoe helped Zell to his feet, as Squall addressed the remaining SeeDs.

"There's a large palace inside. That's where we're aiming for first." The recruits nodded, as a bolt of lightning lit up their surroundings. "Watch out for snipes cause guns are their main weapons. Kay? Let's go."

Zell knew Squall had rushed through it, so they'd have to show by example. Zoe, Squall, and Zell led the way through the freezing puddles towards the now gaping hole in the wall. A low grumbling of thunder caused Squall and the blonde to jump; proving that the Chimera had indeed scarred them for life.

"You know, after thinking about it, I don't think that Chimera was as tough as you guys made it out to be," Zoe joked, as the gap in the wall became bigger and bigger. "I mean, I didn't have to do anything special to take it down."

"I'm not even going to give that a response," Zell smirked. "Nothing could have prepared us for that." Squall shook his head in agreement, but kept his mouth shut. The blonde was finally getting used to this onslaught of rain. The pellets of water weren't stinging him as bad, and his body adapted to the coldness. It was a sucky night, but he was glad he was walking instead of still on the ground. "Zoe…?"

"Hm…?"

"Thanks," Zell mumbled, looking at the ground. "I didn't think you'd come."

"You're a very convincing writer," she complimented.

Zell blushed, and was glad he had his hood up. "Yeah…" He decided to leave it at that because this conversation could wait til later. Right now, they were on a mission. He looked up at the sky; letting the hard rain soak his face. "I said I'd get here, so here I am," the blonde thought, as they were almost right in front of the fissure. "Show me what you got." A flash of fear pulsed into his body, as he wondered what other hell could reside in this place. His brain told him to stop, but his body refused to listen. Trying to control his breath, he walked within an arms length of the fortress, and prepared to go in.

"Snipes!" Squall yelled, bringing Zell back to reality. Like the first time, a line of four or five snipers appeared on the wall and started firing. The bullets soared over the three's heads, and kicked up dirt further back. With help from the cavalry behind them, a wave of magic and bullets caused the wall and the snipers to literally disintegrate.

"This is going to be easier then I expected…" Zell smiled to himself, entering the fortress for the second time.

(**********)

Back to the white room. Still cold, but not quiet anymore. Blasts were exploding outside, and the ground shook in tremors.

"The hell's going on?" Puma thought to himself. The door to his cell suddenly burst open, and an odd looking soldier approached him.

"You're helping us," he snapped, throwing a staff into his hands.

"No!"

"Yes, get out there!" The guard pushed him out of the door, and he heard gunshots and sword battles all around him.

"They're outside dumbass!" the guard pushed him again, but Puma had enough. He swung his weapon back, and knocked the guard down unconscious. Blood flowed out of the downed soldier's mouth, but he didn't care. He was free.

"Damn bastards can fight their own battles," he thought, starting to walk away. "Wait…what if it's the Garden they're fighting?" Stopping in his tracks, the redhead deliberated the thought in his head. It was unlikely, but knowing Zell, there probably was an army here.

"I think we're screwed!" a voice complained from the hallway adjacent from him. Puma pressed himself up against the wall; praying the soldiers wouldn't look down his corridor.

"Yeah, we need to get out of here, but Rinoa thinks we can still win this thing." Another voice said.

"With what?"

"Who knows, but she's the boss."

"True." The voices slowly faded off, and luckily were too occupied with each other to notice the redhead. Breathing a sigh of relief, Puma realized it would be stupid to walk around this place dressed in a SeeD uniform. He looked around the hallway for a disguise, and his eyes fell upon the soldier he knocked out. Grabbing the man, he walked back into his cell, and quickly changed into the smelly uniform. It was rather large on him, but he'd have to make due. He threw on the hat, which covered his hair, and found some face paint in the pocket. After about five minutes, Puma was satisfied, and left his cell once again.

(**********)

Once again, the citadel loomed over the town. However, this time, the townspeople were easily visible. Panic was ruling the town, as the people gathered their belongings and tried to run. To their left, Selphie's party was already staging an attack. SeeDs were scaling the wall and wreaking havoc upon the nearby houses. Flames struggled against the rain and smoke rose in the dark sky. The wall now had another fault in it, as weapons pulverized it.

"That's a good sign they found Irvine," Zell smiled to Squall.

"A good distraction too," Squall added, looking up to the palace in front of them. "Let's get her…" The townspeople were too busy with Selphie and company to bother them, so they walked unblocked to the structure.

"Do I knock?" Zoe asked, standing in front of the closed door.

"Nah…I guess we just go in," Zell shrugged. Satisfied, Zoe turned the knob and pushed.

"AHH!" she yelled, jumping back. An elderly, butler like person stood in the doorway as if waiting for them.

"Good Evening," he started. "I'm here to deliver a message from the lovely Miss Heartily."

Unable to control himself, Zell gave him some painful chin music, and the man fell to the floor.

"ZELL!" Zoe yelled at him.

"He used the word lovely!" the blonde defended himself.

"You don't think he was going to say anything important?"

"Fuck him…" With that, Zell led the way into the palace. To his surprise however, he was pushed back outside with the flat edge of a sword. The blonde fell back into the mud. Looking up, he saw a Forbidden had emerged from the doorway, and was taunting them with swings from his sword.

"So what? The guy was going to warn us about a little Forbidden," Zell muttered, getting to his feet. "We can take this."

"Uh…Zell," Zoe muttered, tapping him on the shoulder. Turning around, he noticed that a circle of Forbiddens had surrounded the SeeDs. There had to be almost forty of them.

"We're still better off then the Chimera," Squall mumbled, raising his gunblade. The lion made the first move, beheading the doorway blocking Forbidden. Then all hell broke loose. Zell, Zoe, and Squall jumped up in the doorway so they would only face the enemy on one side. Bullets ripped through the air and magic lit up the sky as the other SeeDs tried to handle the mob of skeletons. The Forbiddens towards the back were taken out first so their encirclement plan fell apart.

The first enemy Zell met took an early swing at him. Leaping back, the blonde grabbed its' elbow and broke the arm in half. The sword fell to the floor with a loud clank. Unsure what to do, the beast threw a weak punch. Zell caught the hand with his left glove, and thrust his right palm under its' nose. The skull fell off backwards, and the rest of the bones crumbled soon after. Bending over, Zell swiped the foe's sword, and wielded it in his left hand.

Zoe cleaned out her first enemy with a back swipe from her scythe, cutting it at the waist. Reaching her second fight, she tried to down slice it, but the skeleton caught it with his sword. Zell was right beside her however, and took out three of its ribs with a slice from his new sword. Distracted with Zell, the Forbidden was caught off guard when Zoe kicked it in the stomach. It fell onto its' back, and was finished off when the tip of the scythe went through its' forehead.

By the time Zoe and Zell had taken three down combined, Squall had eight. The skeletons couldn't decipher his sword patters, and when they thought they did, a bullet was fired from the damn thing. A pile of bones was forming in front of the brunette, as he received more and more challengers.

The back SeeDs were taking them down by the dozens with a barrage of magic, bullets, and sword techniques. The forty original Forbiddens were dwindling down to about six, and those skeletons were running for higher ground. Squall shot a final one down, and then lowered his gunblade.

"How many did you get?" Zell asked Zoe.

"Seven, you?"

"Five," he mumbled, disappointed. They both looked up to Squall, who was already making his way into the citadel.

"Seventeen," he said stoically. Zell and Zoe shook their head, and followed him in.

(**********)

"What are you doing boy?" a soldier questioned. "What's your rank?"

Puma had barely gotten down the first corridor before someone questioned him. He tried to think of an army position, but was drawing a blank. "Uh…soldier?"

"Wrong answer," the soldier narrowed his eyes. He reached for his gun, but Puma was quicker. With one swift movement, he twirled the stick and hit the man under the chin. The soldier flew, and landed three feet away. Luckily, nobody saw or heard it, and Puma was able to quietly walk over to the body.

"My name is Boris Chekvlinski," he muttered, pulling the wallet out of the downed soldier's uniform. "I am Spider, 3rd class." Shrugging, Puma continued on his exploration of his jail. He figured he wanted to go down, so there had to be a staircase somewhere nearby. The redhead picked a random hallway, and started to follow it.

"HEY! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" a voice suddenly yelled at him from behind. Turning, he saw three or four soldiers walking up to him. "What's your rank?"

"Spider, 3rd class," Puma nodded, pulling the wallet out of his pocket.

The soldiers looked it over suspiciously, and seemed satisfied with its authenticity. "Then what are you doing going that way? Weren't you given orders?"

"Uh…no." Puma wanted to knock them all with his quarterstaff, but his eyes fell on the guns they toted, and knew it would be stupid to do anything. A large rumble interrupted their conversation, causing them to stumble about.

"These bastard SeeDs are attacking!" the soldier muttered when the trembles stopped. "You're supposed to report to the stairs and then to the roof."

"Uh…where are the stairs?"

"New here eh…? This is the third floor, and the stairs are in the opposite direction," the soldier pointed. "Go up three floors, and you'll be on the roof."

"Kay…" Puma nodded still unsure.

"We're going too, so if you 're confused, you can just follow us."

"Thanks…" The redhead followed behind them reluctantly. They were leading him up instead of down, but he didn't have much of a choice. People notice when you try to sprint away from them. Sighing, Puma found himself in a group of about twenty who waited by the staircase. To his horror, Rinoa Heartily was one of them.

"This is it?" Rinoa asked, looking at the small group.

"Most already left on their boats, this is all we could muster," one of her commanding officers tried to explain.

"Cowards." she scoffed. "Can't even keep track of a hostage." Rinoa shook her head, and then continued her speech. "Kay, here's the plan, we can't take on Balamb Garden by ourselves, so we have to use strategy. Being the great leader I am, I installed a self-destruct system into this town. So with this threat, we can buy time, and take out their army."

The soldiers nodded, impressed.

"The only problem is, one of you will have to stay behind to activate it." That knocked the happiness out of the soldiers. "Do I have any volunteers?"

"I will," Puma called immediately.

(**********)

"Split up and explore the entire structure," Squall commanded once everyone' was out of the rain. "Be speedy. They're not going to wait around much longer."

With that, the SeeDs split up and started checking rooms and hallways. Squall, Zoe, and Zell stayed together, and tried to decide what to do first.

Zell's eyes fell upon a staircase to their left. "I say we go to the top and work our way down."

"True," Squall agreed. "Let's go." Taking the steps two at a time, Zoe, Zell, and Squall ran up the circular steps. They were wide enough for only two people, and the havoc that was going on below made them stumble at points. Looking up, Zell saw another Forbidden waiting for them at the second floor exit. Squall had the lead, and easily dodged the skeleton's attack. With a swipe of his gunblade, the skeleton was cut in half and fell down to the ground floor.

"Easy enough," Zell smirked, as he passed Squall up the stairs. Looking up again, Zell spotted a sniper by the third floor exit. "Get down!" he yelled. Hiding behind the guardrail, the bullet missed the three and exploded one of the marble stairs. Zell moved quickly before he could reload, and threw his Forbidden sword at the man. It missed to the left, but made the soldier lost his balance and fell down two stories.

"Nice," Zoe smiled, running in front of him. At the next floor, the group was met by a red bat. The fiend blasted a fire spell down the stairwell, but Zoe was able to barely duck under it. She hurled a blizzard spell at it, causing it to fall to the floor, and she finished it off with her scythe. The group paused on the fourth floor for a second to catch their breath.

"One more to go," Zell heaved, starting up again. The other two tiredly followed him. They knew that there wasn't much time, but their bodies were worn out. They pushed themselves harder though, and kept going. Getting halfway up, Zell suddenly paused in his tracks, as a yellowish-bluish creature sat by the fifth floor exit. "What the hell is that?"

"Grendel," Squall whispered. "Watch out it's quick." The group proceeded with caution and tried to sneak up on it. The beast seemed asleep, and shrugging, Zoe tried to finish it with a swing of her scythe. That was a mistake. As soon as the cold steel dug touched its' skin, the foe bolted to attention. The Grendel made a terrifying leap over Squall and Zell's head, and landed smoothly a few steps below them. Zell felt like he moved in slow motion compared to this thing. He tried to hit it with a thunder spell, but the foe already jumped back three steps.

"Damn," Zell said to Squall.

"Be careful…" Squall warned. It proved to be true, as the beast took a jump at them. Before the blonde knew it, the Grendel knocked him on his back. The teeth dug into his shoulder, as he cried in pain. Squall took a horizontal swing at it, but the fiend saw it coming. He made a jump to avoid the gunblade, and landed next to Zoe. With a quick swipe of its paw, Zoe was pushed back down on top of Zell. Staring down the beast, the three regained their feet and tried to think of how to conquer it.

Squall raised his gunblade and fired a bullet. The Grendel jumped to the side and avoided it, and then tried to take another pounce at the three. Zoe caught it of guard however with a quick fire spell, and its yellow fur burst into flames of red. Distracted with its burning body, the Grendel didn't see Zell move. The blonde threw a punch into the beast's stomach, knocking the air out of it. Starting to lose the battle, the burnt creature knocked Zell down a few steps with a paw swipe. The SeeDs were moving too fast for it though, and as soon as it got Zell off it, Squall fired a bullet into its' mouth. Jaw broken, the Grendel tried to scream but failed miserably. Defeated, Zoe finished it off with a stroke of her scythe.

"That thing was a bitch," Zell whined from a few steps below.

"Cure!" Zoe yelled.

"AH!" the blonde cried in pain. His shoulder wound closed however, and his body's soreness faded. "Thanks Zoe," he said sarcastically.

"No problem."

Shaking his head, Squall continued to lead them upwards. They past the bloody Grendel corpse, and proceeded up to the roof floor.

"Let's see what's up here," Zell nodded, pushing open the door. The unwelcome rain and wind sent a chill down their spines again, as they walked outside.

"Nice of you to join me," Rinoa smiled, hanging out of a helicopter door. Twenty or so soldiers stood in front of her to meet them.

Showing no fear, Squall raised his gunblade and aimed for the bitch.

"I wouldn't do that," Rinoa smiled again, nodding over to their left. "If you make one move, he will flip that switch, blowing the entire island to pieces."

Zoe and Squall looked over at the soldier in fear, but Zell found him somewhat familiar. The blonde looked at him curiously, and the small soldier smiled at him.

"Let us get out of here, and everyone will live," Rinoa beamed again. "It's your choice." Sighing in defeat, Squall lowered his gunblade, and watched the soldiers pile into the helicopter.

Zell continued to stare at the strange soldier by the self-destruct switch, ignoring the scene in front of him. After a while, the soldier lifted his hat a crack, and showed off his short red hair. The blonde's eyes lit up, and he mouthed the word Puma, but the redhead put a finger over his lips. Zoe elbowed him in the stomach, snapping him back to reality. She looked at him strangely, wondering what was his fascination with the soldier.

"It's Puma," Zell barely whispered in her ear. Zoe's eyes suddenly lit up as well, and she passed the message on to Squall. The brunette showed no change in emotion, but knew a bad situation just became a lot better. He kept one eye on the helicopter, and one eye on Puma.

All but five of the soldiers fit into the helicopter, and to their dismay, Rinoa planned on leaving without them. The helicopter blades began to spin, only adding more wind to the high elevation. Puma took this as his sign, and he jammed his quarterstaff into the switch. It sparked, and then disabled.

Rinoa watched in disbelief as the helicopter began to leave the roof. The five remaining soldiers reached for their guns, but the SeeDs never moved quicker in their lives. Squall cut down the one furthest right, and then shot down the next one. Zoe leaped at the nearest soldier, and thrust the tip of her scythe through his forehead. Zell knocked one out with a head blow, but wasn't paying attention to the last soldier. He found himself looking down a barrel of a gun, and braced for the shot. A bolt of lightning suddenly struck down the last foe however, and the shot was never fired. Zell looked over to Puma, who obviously summoned the thunder spell.

Squall took shot after shot at the escaping helicopter, but it was no use. After fighting all night, Squall finally lowered his gunblade for the last time. Zoe dropped her scythe to the ground and fell onto her back in relaxation. Zell slowly walked over to the redhead, and sat against the wall. Puma followed his example, and tossed his hat over the building's edge.

"Nice accuracy with that spell," Zell complimented.

"Thanks." One of the things Puma loved about Zell was his inability to get to the point. It was always fun to play along with his social games. "I see you patched things up with Zoe."

"Yeah…"

"You're not going to elaborate?"

"It's a long story."

"You got a lot of long stories to tell me."

"True…" Zell noted. A brief pause took over, as the two looked over the side of the building. Smoke arose from the left and right, as groups of SeeDs were celebrating their victory and setting this town from hell on fire.

"So you brought a whole army?" the redhead asked.

"You thought we'd leave you?"

"Nah, it's just…" He was interrupted by a cell phone ring, which Squall dug out of his pocket.

"Hello?" the brunette muttered.

"Yeah she got away…We got Puma though…You found the other two?…Good…Where?…Kay we're coming." Squall beeped off his phone, and addressed Zoe, Puma, and Zell, as they were all looking at him. "Cid gave the order to come home. We have to meet at the beach."

"When'd you get the phone?" Zell asked suspiciously.

"Gift from Cid. Got it when the reinforcements came."

The group nodded, and got to their feet. Slowly and sorely, they made their way back down six flights of stairs, and out into the fortress. Houses were being engulfed by flames, as the rain was beginning to let up. The downpour changed to a regular shower and then to a light drizzle. By the time the group could see the sand, they could barely feel it at all. Dawn was beginning to break, and the light call of seagulls could be heard over the rush of waves.

Selphie wrapped Puma in a big hug when they got to the boats. Irvine and even Seifer shook his hand, but most people weren't up for conversation. Tiredly and painfully, the SeeDs loaded their boats, and started to head home. Squall, Selphie, Irvine, Zoe, Seifer, Zell, and Puma loaded Bauknight's beloved boat. His body was taken by the medical boat, but it didn't help ease the pain they felt when they boarded it.

Zell and Puma claimed the cabin, and laid down in the only bed. Puma put his head on top of Zell's stomach, as they felt the ship push off from shore.

"Happy belated birthday," Zell mumbled, handing Puma the gift.

"Aw…you did remember."

The blonde just nodded and ran his finger's through the red short hairs, and sighed in final accomplishment.

~FIN~