Author's Notes: Mmhmm, more. Like before, this chapter's all mine, so no, I'm not stealing...I think.. Well, here it is. This is the "much anticipated" Children of Fate fic, which is a compilation of posts and written works by myself, Katie (Stickz), and Rin (Fala), chapter 3. Although this particular chapter was written solely by me.
This chapter is from Zell's perspective. Good ol' Zell. Anyway, he'll be..explaining a bit, not too much, but a bit. And Damien'll get settled in, and you'll meet another original char of mine called Luke.. Anyway, this chapter starts with Zell's biography. Then goes into the story itself. Kinda like the 1st and 2nd chapters. New trend. Alright? Anyway, onto the Disclaimer, then the fic itself.
Disclaimer: Yeah, I own nothing. Hm, no, I own stuff, the stuff I own just doesn't happen to include Square or any of their games. Well, I own their games...just not, OWN own. Ah, you get my picture. Squall, Zell, Rinoa, the rest of the Final Fantasy VIII cast, locations, GF, magic, Limits, et cetera, is all owned by Square or Squaresoft or Square-Enix or whatever they wanna call themselves. All I own is randomly created characters (Damien, Devas, Katherine, Geoff, Seth, Luke, et cetera) and maybe some other stuff. And this story, though even that I share with some other amazing people. Anyway, without further adieu, I own nothing, on with the story!
Zell
Name: Zell Dincht
Age: 17
Gender: Male
Nicknames: Zellie, Chicken Wuss, Chickie, The Machine.
Date of Birth: March 17th
Hair: Blond. Long, spiked bangs; short elsewhere.
Eyes: Pale blue-green; depends on dominant GF.
Height: 5' 5"
Weight: Unknown
Distinguishing Features: Dark purple, celtic-type tattoo, roughly crescent shaped, on the left side of his face: from forehead to lower cheek.
Clothes: Informal/Battle: Black T-Shirt with a blue flame on each shoulder, and a grey and red vest overtop. Blue cargo jean shorts. Black socks and red and black skater shoes. Red and black gloves; the Ehrgeiz
Formal: His SeeD uniform.
Weapon Preference: Gloves, Fists
Limit: Duel; My Final Heaven, Different Beat, Meteor Barret, Burning Rave, Meteor Strike, Dolphin Blow, Mach Kick, Heel Drop, Booya, Punch Rush.
Social Behaviour: Zell is a very sociable person. He will talk to just about anyone. He's also quite well-liked. Well, except for those who don't quite like his lively attitude. Zell makes friends easy, but not many of them can be considered true friends. During and after the Second Sorceress War, he discovered that the friends he made from his comrades are the first and only real friends he has. Although he was once very overly sociable, he's toned himself down recently. Zell doesn't like coming off as annoying, and despite himself had begun to change his social behaviour so others will like him more.
Weaknesses: His friends' safety, and his family's as well. He will protect those he cares for with his life. Also. . . Balamb Garden HOT DOGS! It's the best food ever! Oh YEAH!!!!!
Biography: Zell was an orphan. At some point between his birth and about the age of four, he ended up at Edea's Orphanage in the Centra region. There, he lived with his Matron, Edea, and the other children she kept. Here were 'sis' Ellone, Squall, Seifer, Quistis, Selphie, and Irvine. Some other children were also kept here. Around five or six, Zell was adopted by the Dinchts, a family in Balamb.
Zell lived in their residence in Balamb until he was thirteen. He either forgot or didn't care that he had been adopted. He had a few friends, including a younger boy always known as 'The Big Bad Rascal'. At 13, Zell went to Balamb Garden to train to be a well-known soldier, like his 'grandfather'.
Here, Zell met with old 'friends' Squall, Quisits and Seifer. He trained hard to become a worthy martial artist and at seventeen decided to try for SeeD.
He took the written exam with some fellow students and passed. He also completed his field exam, completing it in excellent time. On the day of the field mission Zell learned his fellow group member s would be Squall Leonhart and Seifer Almasy. Their mission was held in Dollet, where a real war was taking place. Seifer was a horrible leader, and if it hadn't have been for another squad's messenger, Selphie, and his own lectures on following the orders, they would have all failed. Instead, Seifer took all the blame and he, Squall, Selphie and another student, Nida passed. The next morning he, Squall and Selphie were assigned to help a resistance faction in Timber free the town from Galbadian rule.
On the train ride there the three fell into a dream-like state, and meet Laguna, Ward and Kiros for the first time.
After arriving, the group somehow finds themselves trying to overthrow the President, which fails. Meanwhile Seifer escaped from Garden and makes his way to Timber and attacks the President of Galbadia. The president was introducing his ambassador, the sorceress. Quistis had followed Seifer and the gang met up. Unfortunately, Zell accidentally revealed to the president that all of them were from Garden. This leads to an escape from Timber and a trip to the closest Garden, Galbadia.
At Galbadia Garden, he was given yet another mission, supposedly a joint mission between Balamb and Galbadia Gardens. They was to assassinate the Sorceress. To help them, Irvine was introduced, and the gang made their way to Galbadia's capital, Deling City. Zell didn't really like Irvine too much.
In Deling City, the group met up with General Caraway, who is also Rinoa's father. General Caraway gave the group their mission briefing and the group separated. This left Zell with Quistis and Selphie to lower the gates to capture the sorceress. Unfortunately, Quistis, who had been mean to Rinoa, returned to apologize, only to find Rinoa escaped and the door locked! The three had to find their way through the sewers and made it to the controls just in time to capture the sorceress. When the time came, Irvine failed the assassination attempt, and Squall went to confront the sorceress. Unfortunately, they lost at the last moment when the sorceress used her Ice Strike Limit. Zell and the girls went to their rescue, but only ended up getting caught and ended up in the D-District Prison.
Zell helped the girls escape and once they managed to make it from the Prison learned the sorceress planned to destroy both Trabia and Galbadia Gardens. Zell picked a side and helped keep that from happening. One group went to B-Garden, the other to the Galbadia Missile Base. Balamb Garden went mobile and floated to the town of FH, where the three who went to the Missile base ended up.
The group discovers that the sorceress, Edea, is searching for a girl named Ellone. Zell wanted to check on Balamb, so they went and discovered it too was under Galbadian rule. Zell defeated the threat with the other's help and they left.
On behalf of Selphie, Squall took the Balamb Garden to Trabia's destroyed one. Once here, Zell and the gang look around before remembering something. They all used to live at the same place. All of them but Rinoa. They remembered the orphanage and each other and then, her. Their matron. The sorceress Edea. With this new knowledge, Zell and the others took Garden to the abandoned building once known as Edea's Orphanage.
Just before reaching their destination, Galbadia Garden, now mobile as well, attacks. Zell had just taken Squall's Griever Ring, on Rinoa's behalf. She wanted a copy, and he gave it to her to hold onto. Unfortunately, a hit from G-Garden causes a section of the Quad, where they were standing, to fall away. Zell manages to move fast enough but Rinoa doesn't. Zell has to leave her for Squall to save later. Zell then leads an attack on G-Garden itself, later joined by the others of the group. Inside, they take on Edea, their Matron acted quite differently then they remembered her, before finally defeating her. Somehow, Edea seems to change and become her old self again. . . and Rinoa goes into a coma.
Zell learned Edea was possessed by a sorceress in the future named Ultimecia. Ultimecia's goal is to defeat and destroy SeeD. Ultimecia's goal was Time Compression, a state where past, present and future combine and one sorceress would be given supreme powers. She possessed Edea but somehow, Edea decided, she managed to suppress the evil sorceress.
Squall decides the only way to help Rinoa is to find Ellone, who has gone to Esthar. So, they begin their search. Squall finds a way to the Esthar continent via the train tracks of Horizon Bridge. After arriving, they search the seemingly empty continent and find the hidden city. Zell learns that they have the required research tools for Rinoa's affliction at the Lunar Base. Squall, finally trusting Zell, goes into space, where he leaves Zell in charge to protect Edea while he is gone.
On earth, Zell, with Edea and another, learn the Galbadians have a plan to start a human generated Lunar Cry, by using the Lunatic Pandora atop Tear's Point. Zell and his help are unable to stop them, attacked by a mechanical monster and expelled from the floating Lunatic Pandora. Above, Rinoa; possessed by Ultimecia, freed Adel and passed Ultimecia to Adel. Squall and Rinoa returned in the Ragnarok, a dragon-like spaceship.
Rinoa is now a sorceress, and must be taken to the Sorceress Memorial. Zell manages to coax Squall into saving Rinoa, with Quistis' help. Selphie piloted the ship and the save Rinoa before fleeing to Edea's House.
At Edea's house, in her field of flowers, Zell was 'excused' while Rinoa and Squall make a promise to be here, in the field, if they ever get separated. Then, he came back in to tell them some news. The President of Esthar wanted to see them. The scariest thing? The Aide who requested their presence was Kiros. The gang arrived and discovered that Laguna Loire was the President of Esthar, with Kiros and a mute Ward as his Aides. Laguna had a plan to rescue Ellone, who was being help within the Lunatic Pandora with a still comatose Sorceress Adel and a possessed Knight Seifer. With Laguna, Kiros and Ward onboard the Ragnarok, the group went to the Lunatic Pandora to save Ellone and begin the Time Compression that Ultimecia longed for by killing Adel.
Inside the Pandora, they rescue Ellone. Then Seifer attacks them. They thought they had defeated him before he jumps up and captures Rinoa, bringing her to Adel.
After confronting and killing Adel, Ellone instigates Time Compression, sending Ultimecia's consciousness to the future and then bringing Rinoa's back to the present before setting the Time Compression into full swing. Zell and the others are pulled into a world some unknown amount of time into the future. Here, they find a floating Castle. Ultimecia's Castle. They passed the bodies of dead SeeD, and continued up the large chain links keeping the castle from floating off into the sky.
Zell helped to defeat many bosses inside the castle that were blocking various abilities, before defeating Omega Weapon with Squall and Rinoa's help.
Inside Ultimecia's chambers, the teenagers were confronted by a young, silver haired woman they knew as Ultimecia. After her speech of temporal domination and ending the lives of all SeeD, she attacked, using powerful Magics and special abilities to take out the would-be heros. They defeated her once, and she summoned the most powerful of GFs. Griever. The GF represented in Squall's Ring. They battled it and managed to defeat it too, only for the GF to junction itself with Ultimecia. After taking the combined two out, stars began falling around them, and they stood on seemingly starry space, alone. Until, of course, Ultimecia appeared in her true and final form. She used the most powerful Apocalypse magic against them and an attack called Hell's Judgment that lowered the party's HP to one. She spoke, her words sad and disturbing. Using a Holy War, Zell used the one HP and the Invincible status to use his Limit, and ended with My Final Heaven, severely depleting the sorceress' HP before Squall finished her off with Lionheart. The Time Compressed world began to change back and the group all slipped back into their own time. Zell and the others found there proper times and returned to the present.
About a week after Ultimecia's demise in the once-again normal time, there was a party to celebrate their accomplishments. Zell happily ate his first Balamb Garden hot dogs ever. . . only to choke on them. Quistis, Selphie, and the Library Girl (Maekie) managed to keep him from dying, while Irvine TAPED IT! So, he threw the hot dog at the cowboy, mad. Unfortunately, he also scared off all the others too.
The other three weeks had been uneventful. Zell was appointed instructor of History and Unarmed combat of Balamb Garden. Zell also used the time to visit with his Ma and Pa, and used some of the money he was getting to help rebuild some of the destroyed buildings in Balamb. It was a very hectic month, with a lot of mission debriefings, paperwork and craziness. Things are finally starting to settle down again. There was just one thing that's bugging him.
His unknown desire to head back to the Fire Cavern.
Chapter 3- Bed Heads
Zell's Point of View
A blond, spikey haired teen moved silently through the Garden hallways, being careful not to wake up any of the students. Me. I have a destination in mind. . .
Cafeteria.
I'm dressed in my instructor's uniform, even though there's still almost two hours before classes.
I have a meeting.
At 7:30.
In the morning.
I sigh, looking down at my red and black gloved hands. I should be using this time to train. I have to teach Unarmed Combat after classes to a bunch of Junior Classmen.
'Glad I finished that History lesson plan last night.'
I make my way into the doorway of the Cafeteria, and look around to see one of the two cafeteria ladies behind the main counter, and a janitor slowly mopping up a mess behind the counter.
'Third time this week'
I shake my head and move into the room, and watch as the Cafeteria Lady lifts her head, smiles, and asks me the same question she asks me everyday.
"So what will you be having this morning, Instructor Dincht?"
I grin my trademark grin, and, as always, reply.
"Four hotdogs please."
An unsure look passes over the cafeteria lady's face. She bites her lip, before speaking.
"I'm sorry, Instructor Dincht, but there aren't any hotdogs this morning. . ."
"SAY WHAT!?!!?!!?!"
My face turns bright red, my hands balling into fists. My scream echoes loudly off the walls, sending the cry throughout Garden. It took me a second to realize I probably woke up half of Garden. The Cafeteria lady replied softly once more, slowly backing away.
"There are no hotdogs this morning. We're all out for today."
My face bright red, I kept himself from screaming.
"I- I- . . . " I looked about to explode.
"I'll have a glass of milk and 5 slices of toast and Cheez Whiz." I grin, and the cafeteria lady lets out a sigh of relief. She quickly makes my meal and hands it to me, nodding in gratitude. I shove a slice of toast into my mouth, my stomach growling.
I then turned to the doorway to see about twenty cadets glaring at me, all of them with dark circles under their eyes and serious cases of bed-hair.
"Heh, heh, sorry guys. . ."
And I turn quickly and bolt to the back of the Caf, with 20 pairs of feet echoing my own footsteps.
'Now this is what I call fast food. . . '
All the scary bed-head Junior Classmen chased me from the Caf, and followed me out into the halls. Hoping to lose them, I yelled out
"All I wanted was four hotdogs!"
before ducking into the safety of the Garden's Parking Lot. It was so underused hardly anyone even went in it. Luckily for me, the scary kids didn't follow me. They all went back to bed for another hour of sleep before class. I sighed in relief before realizing something, glancing at my watch.
"I have to meet that kid in five minutes!"
I race off to the Library, hoping the new boy won't be early.
I ran all the way to the Library, out of breath. Get in, see Maekie, the Library Girl with the Pigtails, at the front desk. I scan the room quickly for the new kid. Not seeing him, I freak.
"Hey! Where's the new kid!?"
Maekie, turning to see who it was, seemed to sigh. I glanced around the room quickly again, before letting out a loud sigh.
"Oh no! I lost him! I lost the new guy! Squall's gonna kill me! . . . . .Hey Maekie, sup?"
Wow, I get over things fast.
Maekie smiled slightly and, after a slight pause, replied. "Not too much, thanks. How are you, Zell?"
I grin my cheesy grin and add a quick "I'm ok, thanks." before remembering my reason for being in the Library in the first place.
"Hey, you seen a kid in here? A boy, um, Damien I think?"
Maekie shook her head. I sigh. A dark haired boy steps out from behind the bookcase, bookbag slung over one shoulder. He shyly moves forward and proceeds to say."That'd be me."
I grin. Saved by my big mouth. That was a first. I smiled a thanks at Maekie and motioned I was going to use the back reading area as the site of the new boy's introduction. I then walked up to the new boy, grinning that grin again (My face was gonna be sore tonight) and motioned for the new boy, Damien, to follow me.
"Hey Damien, my name's Instructor Dincht, but you can call me Zell. Welcome to Balamb Garden!"
I spent about a half hour introducing Garden and its various aspects before a hesitant Maekie peeked around the corner.
"Um, Zell, it's, uh, almost time for classes to start. Well, in about 45 minutes. But I figured you'd need that time to, um, get him settled in. I thought I'd, um, let you know..."
I jumped out of my chair, knocking it to the ground. "SAY WHAT!?!"
Damien bit his lip, and was about to repeat what the now freaked out library girl was unable to. Fortunately, I, leaning against the table now, didn't give him the chance.
"Hey dude, we need to get you installed into a Dorm room quick before we're late for class. I'll give you a quick tour, you can get settled in and then come up to class. I'm pretty sure your roommate is Luke Rhodes. He'll be in your first class. So, we'll get you to the dorms so you can get settled and whatever, then maybe later I can get you a meeting with Squa- er, Headmaster Leonhart, ok?" I pushed off the table, waiting for Damien's reply.
"Um, ok. Sounds good to me I guess. Um, could I also get something to eat maybe . . . ? I'm kinda hungry. . ." Damien stood again, lifting the heavy blue and silver bookbag over his shoulder once more.
"OH! Yeah, maybe I should show you to the Caf too. Hm, well, I'll get you a Dorm room first, k? Well, we only have a little over a three quarters of an hour, so we'd better hurry."
Damien followed me from the Library, and we waved to Maekie as we left. The two of us emerged from the Library hallway and Damien stopped. I grinned.
Garden is huge.
He turned to me. "You think I can get a map. . . ? Or, you know, maybe a professional guide might be good too."
I laughed. "New kids. . ." So innocent.
I grinned. Maybe being this boy's guide would be better then I thought.
Damien followed me through the hallways until we came to a doorway. I slid my ID card across the doorlock and typed in 9-1-4 into the keypad. The door slid open and I dragged Damien into the main room.
It wasn't an overly amazing looking room, it was a dorm room after all. I let Damien slide his bookbag of his shoulder while I walked to the far left door and knocked on it. There was rustling for about a minute. I leaned over to knock again just as the door opened, and I nearly fell into the smaller bedroom, reaching out and grabbing the doorframe to keep myself on two feet and not my face. Hyne, I hate when that happens. Don't people realize I have no balance? The boy who opened the door looked from me to Damien and back to me again.
I stood back straight and motioned to the blond haired boy in front of me. "Luke," I motioned to the dark-haired kid. "This is Damien. Damien, Luke. Well, I'll let you get installed, Luke, show Damien to the Caf when he's done unpacking then show him to class, ok? Yeah, well, gotta go for now, see ya!"
I turned, waved and walked out of the room, leaving its occupants a bit confused.
Squall walked from his dorm room, still looking tired. I bet he went to sleep at 4 AM again. One of these days he's gonna fall unconscious during a class. Oh well, at least then he might get some sleep. I was running out of Damien and Luke's shared dorm, hoping to make it to the Training Centre before I had to teach class. Not looking where I was going, I ran into Squall and both of us fell to the ground. I grinned sheepishly as I helped Squall up.
"So Squall, sup?"
Squall shook his head, trying to clear his sleep drenched mind. "Not too much. Have a lot of written requests to handle. We're really backlogged with mission reports. It's crazy up there."
"No doubt. I had to introdu-" I reached into my pocket and pulled out the new boy Damien's ID card. "Oh shit, be right back!"
I turned and raced back to the dorm I had come out of, and Squall waited until I reemerged.
Luke was about to ask if Damien wanted to put his stuff in his room when I ran back into the room.
"Oh yeah, almost forgot, this is your Student ID card, gets you into your dorm room and whatever else. Don't lose it. Later!" I handed Damien the card, turning one-eighty degrees and nearly slammed into the wall, smashing my right shoulder hard into the wall. Rubbing my shoulder, I walk out the doorway.
"There, all better. So, where you off to MR. HEADMASTER?" I grin evilly.
Squall shakes his head. "I'm going to grab some liquid caffeine and something to eat before the place gets packed. Your mail-order slaves haven't arrived yet."
Heh. He remembered. I told him last week to get some mail-order slaves to do his dirty work. It amuses me how he takes me seriously sometimes.
"OK, well, I'm grabbing some caffeine at least. Tired."
I thought about the caffeine for a sec and abandoned my idea of training. "Hm, whatever. Screw the training. I want some caffeine. Need...sleep...." I stretched my arms out in front of me and rolled my eyes to the back of my head. Began walking all zombie-like.
Squall grinned and rolled his eyes. I laughed out loud and abandoned the zombie deal. And we continued to the Cafeteria, unknowing of the danger that waited inside. . .
Author's Notes: Danger, Will Robinson,. Danger! Ha! Yeah, That's Zell's Chapter, Chapter 3. What's the danger? You'll have to wait and see. Anyway, I toned Zell down a bit from the original version, he's not quite as...retarded as I previously made him. So, yeah. Well, hopefully the next few chaps'll be better. I wanna do a Rinoa one now, but I have yet to write her bio and her post/chapter, so you'll have to wait. Until then, check out my Children of Fate site if you need more. Anyway, later reader people, drop a review or three if you aren't busy! I'll be doing the review-replying thing on Mr.Geoff's fic (Different Beat), as I'm almost finished Chapter 3 [it's only been six months...] Well, later.
Shive Frost