Disclaimer: I do not own anything of the Final Fantasy universe, though I wish I was in it…
" what am I doing?" Zell asked himself as he stared into the darkness as he waited for the creature to show itself. He tightened his fists in an effort to control his shot nerves, the tension making him lose his edge. Zell suddenly felt the ground stop shaking and waited patiently. Suddenly he saw a mist of white smoke rush at him and he jumped to the side, narrowly avoiding it. The mist had ghosted over the cuff of Zell's jeans and Zell's eyes widened when he saw the piece of clothing turn to stone.
"Shit…" Zell muttered when he realized he was fighting a full grown Behemoth, its petrifying breath already in its strongest form. Zell then heard the monsters footsteps again and looked up to see it charging at him, its black horns then first thing to hit him. Zell quickly rolled to the side, nearly missing the huge creatures attack, and watched as the creature stopped and stared at Zell with malicious intent. Zell just smiled and ran at the beast, and the beast reared its head back, and breathed the foul white mist again, this time just barely hitting Zell. Zell felt his lungs inhale the mist slightly and he coughed as hew felt his lungs harden slightly. Zell then jumped up and kicked the beast in the chest, making it fly into a tree, the tree cracking and falling over due to the immense force of the monster hitting it. Zell didn't give it a chance as he jumped and dove towards its chest, his fist held outward. It connected and the beast roared as it was punched further into the ground, and Zell flipped back, and took a moment to collect himself as he waited for the monster to react. What Zell didn't see, was that the monster's tail was slowly moving towards his legs.
Fujin realized this and ran towards him, her weapon already drawn, and shot her weapon, the blade flying true to its target. But right when the blade was about to hit its target, the Behemoth's tail deflected it, and rushed towards her instead. Zell saw what was about to happen and he dove at Fujin, making her fly away from him. She watched in silent horror as the monster looked at her with a fanged smile and breathed its white mist again, effectively hitting Fujin completely. Fujin watched helplessly as she was petrified, and Zell was hanging upside down, the tail's end wrapped effectively holding him in place. Zell desperately tried to free himself, but found that he could not; he was too weak from losing air from his semi-petrified lungs. He kept on struggling as he found that the monster was heading for Fujin, and knew what he was about to do.
"NO! DON"T YOU DARE!" Zell screamed as he continued to fight the monster's grip on his body as it stomped closer to Fujin's petrified body, which was standing in place. When the behemoth was now standing in front of Fujin, Zell felt an immense energy flow through out him. This energy was different that his usual limit break, his whole body felt like it was on fire. The monster felt that its tail was on fire and threw Zell across the clearing, trees breaking at the immense force of the throw. When the monster changed its attention to Fujin, that when everything changed.
It's a funny thing when you're petrified. For some reason unknown to most people, even though you are frozen, you can still see everything that happens around you, though you can't respond to anything. Fujin watched as the monster came closer to her, and felt its hot breath on her face. She watched in complete horror as it drew its arm back, about to shatter her petrified body, when an orange blast sent the monster flying into the wall next to her. Fujin then saw Zell walk towards the monster, but that was not the reason Zell surprised her. Zell was covered in what look like fire. His shirt was literally burning off of him like his insides was generating the fire around him. His usual blue eyes now held an orange tint, and his gelled hair was now flowing with the winds that this new energy had created. Zell walked past her, probably thinking that she did not see what was happening and her eyes opened wider as she saw energy from his back form a pair of translucent orange wings. She watched as Zell ran to the Behemoth with inhuman speed and hit it again with his fist, fire covering it. Fujin watched as Zell repeatedly hit the beast, its roars filling the training facility. Then Zell turned around and showed its back to it. Fujin watched as the monster was about to retaliate one more time but the Zell grabbed it by its huge neck, and slowly crushed the monster's windpipe, the monster's huge paws clawing at the arm that Zell held it with. Fujin then watched as the energy surrounding Zell's body grew and then he closed his other hand into a fist and punched it in the face, resulting in an explosion that almost made the very earth shake.
Zell let the body hit the floor with a crash and slowly felt the power subside. Fujin then watched as a tattoo of a solid black phoenix, appeared on his back from out of nowhere, it's wingspan covering both of Zell's shoulder blades. Fujin watched as the fire that surrounded Zell slowly dissipated into nothing but steam. He then looked at Fujin and smiled slightly as he felt immense pain in his arm. He looked down and saw that his arm looked like a piece of meat. He ignored the blinding pain that crippled him and slowly shuffled towards Fujin. Fujin on the other hand, felt a bubble in her throat. Now wrong she was about him. How can someone who was in so much pain be still walking, and trying to help her of all people?
"Please… help yourself… you're going to die if you don't…" she said mentally as she felt her insides twist with emotion stronger than anything she felt in her entire life. Zell slowly thought of the spell he was going to use and muttered it softly with a shaky breath…
"Esuna…" Fujin felt that she had control of her body again, and fell to her knees, tears leaving her eye without permission. Zell fell to his knees in front of her and dropped his head to her chest in weakness, though not intentionally. Without thought Fujin caught him, and said biting her lip so not to cry as she felt his weight on her body,
"Why…" Zell smiled at the gentleness of her voice before he said softly, forgetting his hidden agenda of fighting his feelings for her,
"'Because you're… pretty…." Fujin couldn't take it anymore, and for the first time in her life, she cried on someone's shoulder, something Zell knew she needed.
Fujin cried silently her face touching the soft skin of Zell's shoulder; even though it was splattered with spots of his own blood, she didn't care… she needed this and wasn't going to let it slip.
It was then that the main door opened and Squall and Rinoa came running in, finding out what happened.
"What the hell happened…?" Squall said as he ran to them, kneeling near them. Rinoa saw Fujin crying and said softly,
"Squall that can wait, they're injured. Let's take them to the medical ward…" it was then that Rinoa cast a sleepel on the both of them, making them both fall sound asleep…