Whew! Coming into the home stretch. I don't own Final Fantasy and I never claimed to. I don't make money creating this story so they have nothing to gain from suing me. All character except for that of Dameon are property of Square Soft and umm… don't take my story out of context with out my permission blah blah blah. Enjoy the 9th chapter and as always please RxR. Enjoy!

Chapter 9

Once they were in the air it didn't take long for Selphie to plot out Dameon's course. It would only be a matter of moments before they would be right on him, or at least see where he's been hiding all this time. Irvine was checking to make sure he had all his ammo and was ready to unload on anything that wasn't human. Selphie was busy keeping the Ragnarok on course trying to establish radio contact with any of the gardens but it was no use. Zell was punching the air and doing several kicks when he noticed Quistis, who had just finished talking to Selphie about having a way out of wherever it is that they were headed, sit down and she was shaking. "Quistis, what's wrong? I've never seen you get nervous before." He put his hand on hers. Quistis looked up at him, "I don't know I guess I'm just afraid something is going to happen. That one of us isn't going to be coming back in one piece." Zell started to hug her in hopes that she would stop shaking. "It's ok don't worry nothing is going to happen. We'll most likely just go in bust Rinoa out and then the cavalry will come and we'll get home early." She shook her head. "I don't know I've never felt this strongly about anything…well for how except how I feel about you." He stopped hugging her and looked her straight in the eyes. "Don't worry I promise you I won't let any of us get hurt ya'know?" She smiled back and her shaking stopped. Squall was lost in thought thinking of what Dameon could possible want with Rinoa. As for Laguna well… maybe he has this com.. Selphie interrupted his thoughts. "Oh my, you guys have to come see this." They all rushed towards the main controls and started to look out the front. And there it was, hundreds upon thousands of monsters were there, flying in circles around what looked like the mouth of a cave. The rest were like drones just standing around keeping the area safe. They all turned to Squall for guidance. Quistis spoke first. "So we're here Squall, what do you want us to do?" He had a look of deep concentration. All he wanted to do was to fire all the ammo they had on board and tear them all a new one until there was nothing left. But that would just get himself and his team killed. They all kept looking at him. Finally Irvine put his hand on Squalls shoulder. "You know we're her for you, we always will be, to fight with you and to do what ever it takes to get Rinoa back." Squall smiled. He had forgotten how loyal and great a group of friends he really had. Zell jumped in slapping both Irvine and Squall on the back. "Now that's what I'm talking about lets get in there and show'em what we've got!" Squall moved towards Selphie while Irvine turned towards Zell. "Don't touch me Zell." Zell just smiled and turned away. "Whatever. Huh great now I sound like Squall." Every one shook their heads; this was no time to joke around. Squall went back to looking over the area. "There's bound to be a way we can sneak past them, land the Ragnarok and make our way to the cave without being noticed." But it was too late they had been spotted. The dragons and anything else that could fly were coming at them.

Selphie started shooting the main cannon while warming up the blaster. They came all at once, the Ragnarok shot a good thirty of them down but for every one that went down ten more came to take it's place, Selphie wasn't use to this kind of air combat but did her best to out maneuver them. Selphie tried to radio for help one last time but one of the dragons must have crashed into their transmitter Every one but Squall were strapped down to their seats; there wasn't really anything they could do. Finally the blaster cannon was charged up. In what would most likely be known as the longest six seconds of all time, Selphie had Squall help her aim the cannon at the large group of monsters gathered near the mouth of the cave. But just as he was about to fire Craboom! The Ragnarok shook uncontrollably and Squall was hurled from his seat. "One of them must have blown a fuel tank! Selphie!" She was way ahead of him punching at the controls trying to get them to respond. "Yeah I know, I know I gotta dump the fuel tanks or what's left of them anyway." Squall tried to make his way to one of the seats and strapped himself in; as he buckled in he turned to his team. "Brace yourselves we're going down!" When he looked back to the front of the ship he saw the ground rushing up towards them. The next thing they all knew they were upside down. The squad unbuckled themselves from their seats and were about to climb out of the ship when they realized they were completely surrounded. Squall had to come up with a plan and quick. "Squall what are we going to do" Irvine asked in a rather nervous tone. "Hm…Selphie is the blaster cannon still operational?" Selphie climbed her way to the cockpit and checked the equipment. "Yeah it's still working but I'm afraid we can only use it once, anymore and it could blow up on us. Quistis walked up to Squall. "So what's your plan?" Squall went to the door and pried it open with his gunblade. "On my signal Selphie, I want you to shoot the cannon so that it hits near the mouth of the cave, that should create a path for us to follow. Not to mention it should also take out a great deal of the monsters around us and the cave entrance." They all nodded in unison, and then Squall gave Selphie the signal. With a mighty clash the cannon fired rocking the ship. The path of the bullet ripped through the monsters and blasting a great deal of them away when it exploded into the ground ahead.

The squad came out rushing with Squall in the lead. But there were so many monsters that that it wasn't long before they had to start fighting them off on their own. Squall cut straight through two, flipped back and let out his renzokuken, with each slice he cut through one monster then another and another. Whatever he didn't slice through he would kick or punch out of his way. With every step meant taking at least five of the monsters in his way. At first he would just wound them enough to get them off his case. But once he thought about Rinoa, he started gutting off heads, arms, legs, wings, and antennae. He didn't care about what was the right thing to do he just wanted the woman he loved back. He did two quick slashes chopping off a dragons tail and head then turned around and took out five more. His gunblade, jacket and pants were all covered in their blood.

Zell and Selphie weren't too far behind Squall. Zell and his vast number of sweeps, kicks, punches, roundhouse kicks, and many combos' were tearing the monsters apart. He wasn't holding anything back. He would roundhouse one dragon, uppercut a grat, and then pull off a back flip while simultaneously kicking another dragon in the jaw nearly taking its head off in the process. Selphie was a force to be reckoned with as well. It was almost as though she had cast aura on herself but no it was all skill. Using blizzagas she froze the monsters charging towards her, and break them down with her nunchaku. Zell would help her out if she needed it and ram his fist through whatever dragons or T-rexaurs were too big for her to break apart herself. More than one time Zell had to save Selphie from some of the flying monsters that came after them and vise versa. There were so many, but they weren't about to give up. Each of them put themselves in Rinoa's position. There's no way they wouldn't keep fighting, because it's exactly what she would do for any of them. But as he pushed Selphie out of the path of a T-rexaurs tail, it hit Zell in the chest cracking three ribs and tearing a chunk out of his side.

Quistis and Irvine were right behind Selphie and Zell. But Quistis was getting tired of always having to look back at Irvine to make sure Irvine was still with them. To her it seemed like every few seconds he would have to reload his shotgun and she would have to keep those things off his back. But with so many of them it wasn't an easy job. Finally he finished reloading, for a while it seemed like the others had forgotten about them when Zell and Selphie came to help the two catch up to Squall. At this point Zell was bleeding pretty badly and clutch his side in pain. But he didn't stop fighting. He didn't let anyone know about his injuries. Lucky for him every one was too busy fighting to notice. Quistis started to use her whip and rip out one of the monsters throats and firaga the grat the came up behind her. With Irvine reloaded he started shooting left and right. He had great aim and took out everything that came in tree feet of them. Nothing but head and sometimes eyes shots, he spun around and took out one T-rexaur then whipped his gun behind him and took out another one. At one point he was tackled onto the ground by a dragon and had to blow it away at point plank. His once clean trench coat and hat were now covered in green smelly ooze. After he got up and made his way to the others he could see Squall at the mouth of the cave. They had made it.

Once the squad was all there they turned around and used whatever magic they had to keep the monsters away. So far it seemed they had run passed a whole army of monsters and they had a good two minutes before the monsters would reach the cave. Squall started to talk as they all used their magic on the monsters forty yards away from them. "Ok now we made it to the mouth of the cave, again on my signal I want every one to run into the cave and follow me until we find Dameon. Rinoa and Laguna should be there with him. And we can out run most of these monsters without having to use too much ammo and magic on the ones that get too close." As Irvine reloaded he turned to Squall, "We can't just run in through knowing what's in there we need more time to look around in there or we're not going to make it out of here." Squall turned back to face the monsters. "We have to choice, how are we going to get enough time. "I'll stay." Every one turned to see Zell had stopped using his magic and looking at Squall and Irvine. "I'll stay behind and hold them off, that should buy you all enough time to find Rinoa and Laguna. Squall shook his head. "No, we're not leaving you," Zell shouted back. "I'm not giving you a choice! Now hurry go on, they're almost here." Squall looked at Zell and saw the blood on his side. He knew what he was going to do and that he wouldn't be able to talk him out of it. "Thank you." Squall said. They were about to rush when Quistis spoke out. "I'm staying too." Zell shook his head. "No your not, they need you to go in there and help save Rinoa and Laguna." She looked at his arm, gabbing at his side and the blood running down his leg. "Your hurt let me see." Zell backed away, "I'm fine." He said. Quistis started to cry, "I asked you what I would do without you, you promised me I wouldn't have to find out. Don't break your promise to me Zell." He looked back at the monsters. They were getting too close. "I have to do this, because I also promised you I would make sure nobody would get hurt." She looked at him and couldn't stop crying. "You can't ask me to just leave you." He turned his back on her. "I'm not asking." He said. "Now go, and remember no matter what happens I will always love you." Then he kissed her, she then looked back and started running with the others into the cave.

Zell stood there with thousands of monsters rushing towards him, piling on top of each other. But as they reached him they all stopped waiting to see what he would do before they all attacked him at once. Zell spoke out to them. "I am a SeeD class 'A' elite! I will not let any of you hurt my friends. I won't let you pass you hear me! YOU WILL NOT PASS!" The then lashed out at them with his duel combos' as they all tried to jump him, but none of them could get even close. Not even the T-rexaurs. But then one of them clipped him on his side. He nearly fell to the ground in pain. Just then the looked up and unleashed his burning rave. He screamed out and put all his energy strength, and power as his fist hit the ground. A great ball of fire and energy swelled, every thing within a thousand yard radius was engulfed and burned up. Whatever was left was either dead or dying. And so Zell over exerted and exhausted fell to the ground.

As the others ran to find Rinoa, they all felt the ground beneath them shake and a ray of light come from behind. The instantly knew it was Zell. Quistis looked back and so did Selphie; she couldn't believe how brave Zell was to give everything he had to save Rinoa and Laguna. Then they saw it, it took them a little while but they had found where Dameon was. He stood there waiting for them. Rinoa was pinned to the wall; Laguna was laying next to her unconscious. The second they saw this they all started attacking Dameon with Squall leading the charge. Irvine shot at its wings while Selphie and Quistis tried using several magic's to burn and poison him. But it didn't look like it had any effect. Dameon swatted Selphie away with his tail. Then he saw Irvine still shooting at him, one of Irvine's bullets got Dameon right in his eye. This only enraged the beast and he raised his foot to stomp him. Irvine froze; he didn't know what to do he just panicked. Finally Quistis tackled knocking them both out of harms way. Dameon then picked them up and threw them to where Laguna and Rinoa were. Squall tried to stab him with his gunblade but his scales were too hard. He tried going for his under side. Success! He pierced through, and Dameon screamed in pain. Squall tried for a second blow but Dameon knocked him off with his arm. He then saw Selphie powering up another spell and with his tail wiped her towards Quistis. Selphie got up and with tears building up in her eyes yelled at him. "Why? Why are you doing this? Whats the point of this! All those people!" To their surprise he talked back. "They took me from my home, experimented on me and gave me power. Now I will take this power and destroy the world that would have creatures like them in it." Selphie screamed back at him. "But we are all innocent! Why hurt her?!" Dameon laughed. "I was innocent until they came along, now I will exact my vengeance on the world ten fold! Starting with all of you!" Just as he finished Dameon charged at the squad, Squall lost it. He mind was so full of rage towards this…this thing that had cost him a dear friend and was now about to take out the only people in the world he had left, he knew Dameon wouldn't stop till he was done torturing them like he did to the others. Squall screamed as he jumped at Dameon and sliced his hand right off. Squall never knew he had just power, but didn't stop. He let out his renzokuken and just as he was about to stop he let out his most powerful attack, the lion heart. Again he cut through Dameon's scales not stopping till he sliced through bone, blood flew everywhere, Dameon screamed in agony until Squall sliced his throat cutting of his cries. Eventually the giant mass fell over but Squall kept striking. The others stood in awe of Squall's might as he struck down the monster. When it was all over Squall was on his knees crying, still striking at the lifeless heap that once was Dameon. Rinoa went over and began to hold Squall and let him know she and the others were all right thanks to him. It was over, they could go home.



End Of Chapter 9