Chapter 45

Fight in our Home

(Zell)

Zell had never felt so utterly beaten in his life.

He wasn't accustomed to losing. Maybe he'd lose at a few friendly games of cards or board games or other little things, but when the situation got serious—when it came down to life or death—Zell had always emerged on top. The fact that he had survived so long against such steep odds was testament to his ability to consistently emerge victorious.

Weeks ago, he and his friends had lost the fight in Deling City, shortly after the failed attempt to assassinate Sorceress Edea. But they had rallied later on, escaped D-District Prison, and eventually defeated the Sorceress Ultimecia. Their failure in Deling City had been more of a setback rather than an abject failure.

The recent defeat in Timber was a bruise to his ego as well, but considering the fact that he had wanted to withdraw from the TV Station from the moment he found out how crazy Ciel was made it easy for him to accept the fact that Galbadia had eventually forced SeeD to leave.

This time, however, it was different. Galbadia had tracked them down, overpowered them—overpowered Zell specifically—and had taken over all of Garden. Zell could not see how SeeD would rally back from this, or even how SeeD could possibly continue to exist now.

(It's over.)

After SeeD had surrendered, Zell had been forced onto his knees, his hands laced behind his head. Two Galbadian soldiers pressed their military sabers into his back, just between his shoulder blades. A word from their superior—or an errant sneeze on their part—and Zell would be dead in moments.

He looked around and found Ami in a similar situation, down on her knees further down the hallway to the quad. They had gotten momentarily separated during the fighting, and Zell hadn't been able to relocate her until just that moment. He checked on her condition from a distance. She was a little bruised, but still alive, her eyes glistening with defiance and she coolly watched events unfold.

Irvine was on his knees near the front gate. The massive ice slide that Selphie had constructed from the third floor was rapidly melting, creating a cold, wet rain that dripped onto Zell's bare neck and shoulders, making him wince every time a drop hit. He looked up and wondered if large chunks of ice would start to fall soon.

After Quistis had gone up to the third floor to speak with Martine, Squall, Rinoa, and Selphie had been taken out of the main hallway and dragged—both at gunpoint and at sword-point—to the parking lot at the other side of school. Zell had heard nothing from them since.

(Hope they're okay.)

In the hallway leading to the quad, Zell could see Dax, kneeling with his hands behind his head and no fewer than four guards watching him. Dax's eyes moved around, glaring at his captors. Mireya was beside him, her head pointed to the ground, but her eyes watching everything that happened from beneath her black bangs.

Everyone's weapons had been confiscated and piled together somewhere out of sight near the dormitories. This was of little consequence to Zell personally, since his primary weapons—his fists—were still firmly attached to his arms, but he knew that a lot of the other SeeDs would have difficulty defending themselves without their weapons.

In the long, uncomfortable silence, Zell tried not to think about what was going to happen to SeeD. Would they be disbanded? Would Galbadia absorb SeeD and force them all to fight for the G-Army? He shuddered. Zell knew he would never submit to the Galbadians. Even if it killed him, he would fight until the very end.

But with all the Galbadians in the room—at least two or three for every SeeD—and with all the SeeDs disarmed and on their knees, fighting back seemed like a suicide mission for sure. Zell was torn. He wanted to fight to keep himself and the rest of SeeD from falling into the hands of the Galbadians. But at the same time, he knew that fighting would likely get everyone killed.

He had often heard people say things like, "It's better to die on your feet than live on your knees," but Zell had never thought he would be put into a situation where he would have to make that choice. Now that he found himself at the crossroads, he realized that the choice wasn't a clear as other people had made it seem.

(Dying is scary…)

While he silently weighed his options—and contemplated his own mortality—he heard an explosion come from outside the school. He turned to look, careful not to make any sudden movements that would put his captors on edge. The SeeDs and the Galbadians in the room glanced around as well, their faces marked with confusion.

At first, Zell thought that something had happened to either Quistis or to Squall and the others. Maybe one of them had tried to fight back and gotten killed by the Galbadians. His heart began to hammer and his muscles ached with the desire to act—the desire to fight back and help his friends. But another explosion came, and Zell figured out that the sounds were coming from well outside the school beyond the quad, likely from G-Garden or from one of the Galbadian ships that they had used to tow G-Garden.

His eyes brightened and he raised his head.

(Is that White SeeD?)

(Or T-Garden?)

Zell looked around and relished the nervous glances that spread among the Galbadians. Soldiers murmured to each other. Red-clothed officers ordered their subordinates to stay calm while they themselves whispered angry and worried questions into their radios. Whatever was happening outside of Garden, it was not a part of Galbadia's plan.

(Good.)

(Whatever's bad for them is good for us.)

One G-Officer—whose mannerisms indicated that he outranked the rest—strode up the steps to the central elevator and raised his hands to get everyone's attention. All eyes turned to him—even the SeeDs on the floor. He paused for a moment and then spoke.

"All right, orders just came in from central command," he said to the soldiers. Explosions continued to thunder in the background, punctuating his statement.

Then the intercom chimed three times. The officer frowned in confusion and stared up at the ceiling, seemingly mystified by the interruption.

"Attention students!" Quistis' voice said from over the speaker. "Esthar has joined the battle! Fight! Fight!"

Zell's eyes widened.

(Esthar?)

That was probably the best news they could have gotten. Esthar had an entire military at their disposal, complete with a navy and some of the world's best technology. If Esthar had joined the battle, that meant that the Galbadians would suddenly be the ones with the disadvantage.

"Kill 'em all and evacuate!" the Galbadian officer at the top of the steps yelled. "Those are the orders!"

But with the confusion caused by the explosions and the unexpected news of Esthar's involvement, the Galbadian soldiers were slow to react to these orders.

The SeeDs, however, were not.

Zell leaned forward to open up a gap between his back and the twin swords pressed into his body, then placed his hands flat on the ground and stuck one leg out. He swept his foot around and tripped both of the Galbadians who had been guarding him, taking them down to the ground hard. He leapt atop them, punching them both quickly to stun them before jumping to his feet.

(Let's do this!)

Chaos broke out almost immediately. SeeDs with experience using their fists in combat pummeled their guards into submission, striking their joints and soft parts to bring them down quickly. Students who ordinarily used swords or rifles grabbed ahold of their captors' weapons and yanked them out of the hands of the G-Soldiers. Everyone else resorted to magic, and suddenly the Garden was alight with fire, ice, thunder, gunfire, and screams.

In the hallway leading to the quad, the Galbadian soldiers rushed in an unorganized mass towards the students they had formerly captured, moving in a teeming mass of blue uniforms and flashing blades. Zell punched one soldier and dodged underneath a sword that went sweeping over his head. He grabbed another soldier's wrists and twisted, hearing the bones crack. The man screamed and dropped his sword, and Zell finished him off with a vicious kick to the stomach that sent the soldier stumbling back into another soldier, taking them both to the ground. Soon other SeeDs were at his side, throwing themselves at the mass of Galbadians, shouting furious battle cries. Yells and gunfire and slicing sounds enveloped Zell on all sides.

He wheeled around and looked about, trying to find Ami in the crowd, but in the confusion he could only see a swirling blend of black SeeD uniforms mixed with red and blue Galbadians.

Close to Zell, three Galbadians armed with swords had cornered Mireya next to one of the abandoned cars parked in the hallway. The three soldiers sliced the air in front of her, forcing her to dodge and retreat, walking steadily backwards and growing closer and closer to the car behind her. Without her sword, she had little ability to counterattack her enemies, and they weren't giving her enough time to focus and cast magic. Within a few seconds, she wouldn't have anywhere else to retreat and the soldiers would have her.

Zell grunted and ground his teeth. Even though he personally didn't like Mireya, she was still a SeeD, and Zell believed in loyalty to his allies and teammates. Zell elbowed a nearby Galbadian in the stomach and took off sprinting to help Mireya.

He jumped onto the waist-high wall that encircled one of the fountains and ran along the stone surface for three steps, then leapt high into the air, his hands clenched into fists and raised above his head. His brought his fists down hard on the helmet of the middle of the three Galbadians. Although the man's helmet absorbed the worst of the blow, the impact hit with such force that it still made him crumple to the ground.

Zell landed just behind the fallen man and punched outwards to both sides, hitting the other two Galbadians simultaneously. They both staggered, but only for an instant. Zell picked one of them at random and turned to face the soldier. He leapt at him, refusing to allow the man time to recover, and ripped the soldier's sword out of his hand and tossed it to Mireya. Mireya caught it in the air and elegantly flourished the blade. Armed once more, Mireya turned and took on the remaining soldier.

Zell struck the unarmed soldier with a quick knee and two punches, sending him moaning to the floor, then spun around and watched as Mireya utterly disassembled her last remaining attacker with three quick cuts—the first slicing open the soldier's hand and making him drop his sword, the second cutting across his body and tearing a hole in his armor, and the third plunging straight into his heart, killing him almost instantly.

(I guess it pays to have a Galbadian Saber as your main weapon…)

Mireya yanked her wet, red blade out of the G-Soldier and then rushed to rejoin the rest of the battle, without so much as glancing at Zell. He snorted.

"You're welcome!" Zell shouted. She kept going, leaping into the heart of the battle with her blade flashing out in all directions. Zell hopped back on top of the fountain wall to get a better idea of what was happening with the battle.

Without the constant influx of new G-Soldiers pouring in through the second floor and the quad and other areas, the G-Army no longer had its crushing numbers supporting it. The broken androids that had decisively turned the battle in favor of Galbadia had been shut off to keep them from malfunctioning and shooting the G-Soldiers. The soldiers themselves had then allowed themselves to get caught off guard—something the G-Army was notorious for doing—and had given SeeD a chance to regain the upper hand.

Stripped of its technology and its numbers, the G-Army stood little chance against the SeeDs.

The students quickly adapted to the changing circumstances of the battle, forming protective groups and defending each other from bullets and swords using their magic. They moved swiftly to divide the Galbadians into smaller, more disorganized clusters and forced the Galbadians into a series of one-on-one battles, where the SeeDs and their junctions had easy advantages.

Just minutes ago, Galbadian officer near the elevator had ordered his troops to kill all the SeeDs and then evacuate. But soon, many of the Galbadians began to decide that the "evacuate" part of their order was more important. They broke off from the battle and began fleeing back to the quad, trying to escape the same way they had come in. Once a Galbadian abandoned the fight and ran, none of the SeeDs bothered to try to stop them, instead focusing their efforts on the Galbadians who chose to stay.

Zell watched the terrified soldiers dash past him and back into the quad. At first they fled in ones and twos, the most cowardly among them being the first to give up. But then, seeing their comrades fleeing, the more stout-hearted began joining the others, until soon there were almost as many soldiers running from battle as there were actually fighting it.

(Let 'em run.)

Zell spotted Dax's hulking form easily enough in the crowd. The blond brute stood a full head over even the tallest G-Soldiers and was tearing his way through a pack of Galbadians, a look of furious glee on his face. Although Dax was clearly outnumbered, he still seemed to have the situation well under control. Zell decided to leave him alone.

Continuing to search the area, he found Ami further down the hall, almost at the cafeteria, desperately casting quick and small magic spells to keep a handful Galbadians away from her. She was clearly uncomfortable using her magic without the guiding influence of her staff, but even stripped of her weapon, her skills were above and beyond the average SeeD's ability.

She had cast an ice spell on the ground to make the floor slick around her, and any Galbadians who wanted to attack her had to first slip and stumble their way over her defenses to reach her. While the soldiers struggled to approach her, she zapped them with electricity or hit them with more ice magic.

Zell leapt down from the wall, instantly losing sight of Ami in the crowd, but he remembered her location. He punched aside some Galbadians, ripped a rifle out of an soldier's hands and then handed it to an unarmed SeeD, and then busted a few jaws as he tore a path of destruction through the hallway.

He soon reached Ami. He found the guard nearest to him and kicked out sideways, snapping the man's kneecap and dropping him, screaming, to the ground. Half the soldiers turned to face Zell, breaking off their attacks on Ami.

(Good. Come at me instead of her.)

Zell dodged aside a clumsy sword swipe and grabbed the soldier's wrist, then spun around and threw the soldier into one of his companions. The two soldiers staggered backwards, slipped on Ami's ice sheet, and fell into a third soldier. Ami fired a bolt of lightning from her palm. The bolt struck the first G-Soldier then arced through the air and hit the next two, dropping them all, convulsing, to the floor.

Zell backed up and got a running start, then leaped over the ice on the floor and landed beside Ami.

"You okay?" he asked. A G-Soldier raised his rifle and took aim at Zell's head, but Ami eliminated him with a blast of lightning and he fell, his body giving off thin wisps of smoke.

"Yeah," Ami said. "Have you seen my staff?"

"Nope," Zell said.

"I think it's over by the dorms somewhere," she said, shooting off another seemingly effortless lightning blast to take out another soldier. Zell watched her fight for a second, and he began to wonder if he was there to rescue her or to take shelter behind her.

Just then a massive explosion rocked the school. At first, Zell thought that the battle outside between Esthar and Galbadia must have been heating up, but then he heard a familiar girl's voice yelling, "YAAAAAAAA!" and realized that the explosion had come from inside the school—from the direction of the parking lot.

(Selphie!)

Zell spun around in time to see Selphie's bright yellow dress come into view. She was riding piggyback on top of her GF, Shiva, while Shiva ran down the hallway spraying waves of ice in both directions. Any bullets fired at Selphie smashed uselessly into Shiva's ice walls and did nothing to slow her down. Swords clanged uselessly off of her frozen defenses. Soon the G-Soldiers abandoned their attempts to stop Selphie and started jumping out of her way.

Running behind her was Squall and Rinoa, trying their best to keep up with the sprinting GF and striking down any G-Soldiers Selphie had missed. Rinoa fired out quick blasts of her colorless magic, while Squall alternated between using fire and his fists.

Grinning, Zell hopped up onto the wall of the nearest fountain and cupped both hands over his mouth. "RUN WHILE YA GOT A CHANCE, GALBADIAN COWARDS!"

Many of the remaining soldiers took him up on his offer, dropping their swords and their rifles and running in terror from Selphie's ice wall of death. The SeeDs—angered and in the heat of battle—threw out a few last attacks to encourage the soldiers' retreat, then paused and watched as the G-Soldiers ran, first one at a time, then in groups, then all of them together. One or two brave idiots remained, trying to fight off the SeeDs, but they were swiftly crushed. The remaining G-Soldiers poured out of the school in a wave, clogging the hallway to the quad.

In a matter of moments, the fighting quieted, then died down, leaving only the sounds of the explosions still echoing from outside the school. There was a pause while everyone looked around, searching for any straggling G-Soldiers. They saw only black SeeD uniforms around them—no trace of Galbadians, except for the bodies strewn on the floor.

All at once, the school erupted in cheers as the students celebrated their victory. Some students whooped and cried out, while the more pragmatic ones took this time to attend to their wounds and the wounds of their allies.

But Mireya refused to allow time for festivities. She leapt onto a nearby bench to give herself some additional height, raised her Galbadian sword above her head, and shouted, "Celebrate later! Attend to the wounded! And capture the sorceresses!"

Shiva loped to a stop in the middle of the hallway, with Selphie clinging to her back like a monkey.

"WHAT?" Selphie yelled. Rinoa and Squall ran to her side, watching the situation warily. A deathly silence had fallen over the school after Mireya's order, and students paused and looked to each other, as if asking whether or not to obey.

(We're at war with Galbadia…)

(… And she's still uptight about sorceresses?)

"You're still goin' on about that?" Zell yelled to Mireya. In the quiet school, his voice carried easily to Mireya's ears. She glanced at him across the distance with cold eyes, wielding the same sword that Zell himself had given her when he saved her, and then looked away from him. Zell snarled.

He didn't understand how she could be so stubborn. After all, it was Selphie's final charge that had routed the Galbadians and ended the fight in a resounding victory. Without her interference, the battle could have gone on much longer and resulted in more casualties.

(She should be applauding Selphie!)

(Friggin' cheerin' her name!)

But not everyone saw it that way. A handful of Mireya's hardcore followers immediately sprang into action, as if they had been waiting for this very signal the whole fight. At first it was only a couple, then more and more until almost a third of the remaining students had picked up weapons and aimed them towards Selphie. Selphie, Squall, and Rinoa tensed, but did not react just yet.

Zell hopped down from the wall and began to jog towards them. They were across the school, near the library. He glanced backwards, expecting to see Ami right behind him, but she was nowhere to be found.

(Where'd she go?)

But Zell couldn't stop to go look for her. The battle lines began to be drawn, as a handful of SeeDs picked up weapons and stood alongside Selphie and the others, staring down those who had chosen to side with Mireya. No one was fighting just yet, but Zell could feel the tension rising, rising, ready to burst any moment.

(This is nuts!)

A few SeeDs opted to not take sides, and instead hurriedly pulled the injured students away from the impending battle. Soon there were two opposite clusters, one formed around Selphie near the library, and the second one near the front gate.

The two forces—both pro- and anti-sorceress—stood glaring at each other, weapons drawn and magic ready. No one moved or said anything, as if waiting for the other side to strike first. Zell rounded the corner, moving past Mireya's group and heading for Selphie and the others.

Then Zell saw Dax—bloodied and bruised but still dangerous—running from the front gate at a dead sprint towards Rinoa and Selphie, his eyes blazing with bloodlust.

"Oh no you DON'T!" Zell yelled as he leapt forward and stuck out a foot. Dax's toe struck Zell's ankle hard, painfully, and Dax stumbled and fell, landing face first on the floor.

Dax was stunned, but only momentarily. He bounced back onto his feet and turned on Zell, his face twisted in a mask of hatred and rage. Zell clenched his teeth and took his fighting stance, ready for his rematch with Dax.

(Bring it on.)

And then, as if someone had fired a starting gun, the battle in Garden broke out once again. This time, it was SeeD against SeeD. The cluster near the front gate charged towards Selphie, Shiva, Squall, Rinoa, and the others loyal to the sorceress, and silence of the school was consumed by shouting and fighting once again.

Dax charged at Zell, his arms spread wide to grab Zell and drag him to the ground—the exact same trick he'd tried before in the training center. Zell smirked and prepared himself.

(The idiot doesn't learn.)

(I already know this trick.)

Zell dodged to the side at the last moment—the same way he had done before—and grabbed Dax's head from behind, ready to drive Dax's skull into the floor. This time, Dax's head would not hit soft earth, but instead collide with the hard floor of the school. Zell didn't know if this move would kill Dax, nor did he particularly care.

But unfortunately, Dax wasn't as stupid as Zell assumed.

Instead of trying to tackle Zell into the ground, he instead grabbed Zell in a suffocating, bone-crushing embrace and stopped running, lifting Zell up off his feet and smashing him against his chest. Instantly, the air was pushed out of Zell's lungs. He could feel bones in his chest and back popping, as his eyes bulged and his lungs fought for air.

(Damn!)

He put his hands on Dax's shoulders, trying to pry himself free, but Dax was so overwhelmingly powerful that Zell could barely even wriggle in his grasp. He felt like he was a tin can in a crusher. Even with Zell's augmented strength and all his training, he simply couldn't overcome the sheer brute force that Dax was applying.

Zell saw spots forming in front of his eyes. The edges of his vision glowed and turned blurry, then began to darken. In Zell's ear, Dax was grunting, his teeth clenched together in strain.

(Oh… hell…)

"LET HIM GO!" a voice said, and both Zell and Dax went flying through the air. Dax lost his grip on Zell and released him midair. Zell flew backwards and crashed hard into a bench, then rolled off and fell on his chest, coughing and sputtering. The blood pounded painfully back into his skull, making him woozy. He tried to stand, but he couldn't even lift his head off the ground without being hit by a massive wave of dizziness and nausea.

Around him, the fighting continued. He saw flashes of white light that could have either been Rinoa's magic or spots on his vision—he couldn't tell. Selphie marched around on the back of Shiva, throwing ice at anyone who tried to attack her. Irvine stood beside her, having somehow recovered his shotgun at some point. He raised his weapon to his shoulder and fired nonlethal rounds into whoever tried to sneak up on Selphie from behind or from the sides. Clouds of toxic gas—infused with a myriad of status ailments—trailed behind Irvine's gunshots, stunning and incapacitating those SeeDs who had failed to properly adjust their junctions.

After a few seconds, Zell gathered enough strength to roll over on his side and look up. There, a few paces away, Ami was battling Dax—a battle of pure physical strength against impressive magical prowess.

Ami had recovered her staff. She twirled it and thrust it out, launching fire and lightning simultaneously at Dax to keep him off guard. Dax circled constantly, keeping away from her magic and trying to get in close for an attack. He lunged, his hands clenched into fists, but Ami ducked aside and tossed out a wave of fire that forced Dax to cover his face with his arms and dodge backwards.

Zell noticed that Dax wasn't using any magical protections. Ami's fire attack hit with full force, charring Dax's clothes and his hair, and turning his skin an angry shade of red where it had struck him. Dax not using his junctions properly should have given Ami a clear advantage, but Zell knew from personal experience how insanely strong Dax was. If Ami missed an attack or left herself vulnerable, then Dax could end the fight with a single, fatal strike.

(No!)

Zell snarled. He tried to scream, "Stay away from her," but with his lungs still struggling for air, all that came out was a wounded wheeze. He raised one hand and slowly, agonizingly called forth an ice spell and lobbed it at Dax's direction. The ice hit Dax on the back of his right knee and froze, forming an icy cast that sealed Dax's leg in position.

Dax stumbled, surprised by his sudden loss of mobility, and glanced down at his leg. This gave Ami the opening she needed. She grabbed her staff and held it in both hands, the tip pointing at Dax as if she was about to joust with him. She grunted and shot out a blast of lightning that slammed into Dax and hurled him into a fountain on the far side of the hall. His massive body landed in the water with a splash, and he vanished from sight.

(TAKE THAT!)

Zell looked up, grinning, and pumped one fist in triumph. But the victory was short lived.

In the crowd of SeeDs, Zell saw a familiar figure striding confidently and silently, approaching Ami from behind. Zell's mouth fell open as he tried to warn Ami but no words came out, only a strained grunt. Mireya stepped up to Ami and—with one neat stroke—slashed her blade diagonally across Ami's back, from hip to shoulder. Mireya's sword sprayed a line of red onto Garden's floor.

Ami twitched, her eyes widening in shock. Her staff tumbled out of her hands and clattered to the floor. Ami went limp and crumpled beside her staff. Her blood began to seep through her uniform and pool out on the floor.

Zell sucked in a deep breath, no longer aware of his physical pain, and shouted, "AMI!"

His shout caused Mireya to notice him. With cold, impassive eyes, she gazed at him, then took several steps towards him, her sword still dripping Ami's blood. Zell fought to stand, but his head swam and his muscles didn't respond properly. He managed to get onto his hands and knees by the time Mireya reached him. She paused just out of reach of Zell's fists and pointed her sword at Zell's head.

She didn't make any comments. No arrogant one-liners or final speeches. She merely raised her blade, took aim, and thrust at Zell's face, aiming between his eyes.

And then a Galbadian robot flew in from the side of Zell's vision and slammed into Mireya's shoulder, throwing her across the hall and bringing her down to the ground. The broken robot got tangled up in Mireya's splayed limbs as the two tumbled along the floor. Finally they came to a stop, with the bulky robot resting on top of Mireya, pinning her down.

Zell blinked, then shook his head in shock and disbelief.

(That robot… saved me?)

Mireya lay trapped under the hulking mass of the purple-blue robot, slashing at it with her sword but unable to dent its metallic frame. Its huge weight pushed her down, effectively keeping her out of the fight.

A hand gripped Zell's shoulder and he flinched. He looked up at his presumed attacker and saw Rinoa standing above him, looking concerned.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

"Did you…" Zell said weakly.

"Yeah, I did that," Rinoa said. She glanced over her shoulder at the battle raging behind her, then threw a white orb into the fray, knocking over a couple of SeeDs who had spotted her and were approaching from behind. She turned her attention back to Zell.

Before Rinoa could say any more, Zell glanced over to where Ami was on the floor.

"Ami's hurt," Zell said, his voice still not working properly.

"Where is she?" Rinoa asked. Zell pointed at Ami's fallen form, and Rinoa dashed over to Ami's side. Rinoa rolled her onto her stomach, exposing the long, ugly red gash in her back. Rinoa winced, then set her hands upon Ami and got to work.

By now, Zell's arms and legs were regaining some feeling. He stumbled to his feet, glancing from side to side and staying away from the worst of the battle, and shuffled over to Ami and Rinoa.

Ami's eyes were open and Zell could see her chest slowly rising and falling. One hand opened and closed over and over, as if Ami was grasping at something that only she could see. The blood had soaked clean through her uniform, making it damp and sticky.

"Is she…" Zell said. His voice caught in his throat again, but this time it had nothing to do with his injuries.

"Give me a moment," Rinoa said with her eyes closed. "And watch my back."

Zell nodded and turned around. Most of the fighting seemed to be centered around Selphie, Irvine, Xu, and Squall, who had formed a defensive perimeter near the library and—along with a few SeeDs who were still loyal to the sorceress—were busy fighting off Mireya's followers. Down closer to the front gate, where Ami's body lay, things were relatively quiet. A few SeeDs stood off to the side, watching the battle nervously and rendering aid to injured students—regardless of whose side they were fighting on.

(They shouldn't help Mireya's people.)

Zell ground his teeth, but said nothing.

Mireya herself was still pinned under the robot. She had given up trying to slash her way out, and was instead bending and contorting herself in an attempt to wriggle out from under its weight. Zell was glad to see that she was making little progress.

(She can stay there forever for all I care.)

His legs still felt a bit shaky after his bear hug from Dax, but he was improving rapidly. It was hard for him to believe that it had only been less than a couple minutes since Dax's attack. Already it was beginning to feel like it had happened hours ago.

He hopped back and forth and threw out a few experimental punches. He was a little slower, a little more unsteady than he would have liked, but he was recovering quickly. He took one more glance at the nearby battle and then turned to check on Rinoa and her progress.

Already there were signs of improvement. Rinoa hovered her hand just above the wound, working her way from one end to the other, sealing the skin closed like welding together two sheets of metal. Zell could feel a humming in the air and see thin white energy flowing from Rinoa's hand down to Ami's body. The bleeding slowed on contact with the energy, the exposed flesh knitted together.

(It's working.)

(She's gonna be okay.)

Anxious, Zell turned his attention back to the battle. His eyes flicked to the fountain where he had last seen Dax. He realized then that he had never seen Dax come up for air. No one could possibly hold their breath underwater for that long, so unless Dax crawled out of the fountain when Zell wasn't looking, there was a good chance he had drowned. Despite himself, Zell felt a pang of regret, but only just the little pang. Not enough for him to actually go and help or anything.

(After all he did…)

Grinding his teeth unconsciously, Zell turned to look at Mireya. She had managed to almost completely free herself from under the robot. As he watched, she was busy prying her ankle loose from the machine's heavy torso. Once that was out, she would be completely free.

(Can't let that happen.)

Zell glanced down at Rinoa and Ami. Rinoa was almost done, it seemed, but she would need more time. And once Mireya was free, there was no doubt that she'd go straight for Rinoa—since Rinoa was one of the biggest reasons Mireya had started this brawl in the first place. Zell knew that if he wanted to protect Ami and Rinoa, he'd have to keep Mireya away from them while Rinoa worked.

Still not feeling his best, but too angry to care, Zell ran for Mireya, hoping to catch her before she pulled herself free. But at the last moment, she glanced up, saw Zell running towards her, and desperately yanked her ankle with both hands. She popped loose from the robot and rolled on the floor, snatching up her sword and regaining her feet in one quick movement. Zell skidded to a stop to avoid running headfirst into her outstretched blade.

Mireya put her feet together and raised her sword. Zell hesitated, unsure of what to do next. He had plenty of experience fighting against people armed with swords. Pretty much every Galbadian Zell had ever encountered used a Galbadian Military Saber. So Zell knew the tricks and techniques that an unarmed fighter could use to beat a person armed with a sword.

But Mireya wasn't like the ordinary grunts that the G-Army spat out into the world. He had seen enough of her swordplay to know that if he rushed into this fight blindly, he would find himself skewered in an instant.

(Gotta think this through…)

While Zell hesitated, Mireya attacked. She lunged out straight with her blade, going for his chest. Instinctively, he twisted his body to dodge the attack and used the palm of one hand to swat away the blade. The saber's sharp edge cut a thin line across his glove, but didn't penetrate to his skin. Zell balled up his other fist to deliver a knockout punch to Mireya's face.

She calmly moved aside of Zell's punch—his blow striking nothing but her black hair—and flicked out with her blade again, spinning herself around to try to get at Zell's back. Zell adjusted at the last moment, the sharp edge of her blade slicing a chunk off of his shirt and searing a shallow line of pain across his shoulder. As he stumbled and tried to recover his balance, Mireya set her feet and slashed and jabbed with blinding speed, her sword rushing through the air.

(JEEZ!)

Zell threw himself to the side, once again barely dodging her attack. But his constant, frantic evasions prevented him from setting his feet down on the floor. Unbalanced and off-center, Zell could do nothing but retreat and dodge, retreat and dodge. Mireya was too skilled with her blade to allow Zell even a microsecond of relief.

As soon as Zell evaded one attack, she adjusted her stance and tried a new combination from another angle, constantly forcing Zell to duck and spin and deflect without ever giving him a moment to respond. Zell had to fight on pure instinct, trusting his animal reflexes and his training to save him, because by the time his brain registered an attack, it was already over—so fast was her blade.

She was relentless, driving Zell further and further backwards. This was exactly the situation Zell had been trying to avoid from the beginning—with him trapped just out of arm's reach but still within striking distance for Mireya. She used her range advantage to its full potential. He was exactly where she wanted him.

He felt his backs of his legs hit the low wall surrounding one of the fountains and he stumbled. Immediately, he knew he only had two options left to him. Either he could roll to the side and hope that he could regain his feet before Mireya attacked him, or he could try something else. Something desperate.

Mireya smirked with triumph and brought up her blade for what could be the killing blow. This almost imperceptible hesitation gave Zell his first chance to set his feet underneath himself. He decided that Mireya would be expecting him to dodge to the side and that she would have something ready for him if he tried it. His only choice was to do something she didn't expect and hope to turn the battle back in his favor.

Zell raised both of his hands to his face, his fingers splayed apart. The fact that he was standing his ground instead of trying to dodge or flee made Mireya narrow her eyes. She readjusted her stance, changing her footing with practiced ease, while Zell carefully watched her hands and her feet, trying to guess where her blade was going to come from next.

(Only got one shot at this…)

Mireya flicked the blade horizontally towards Zell's chest. He moved to counter, but at the last moment, she twisted her wrist and angled the strike up at Zell's head. Zell had no time to think forcing him to trust his reflexes to save him. He ducked his head to the side and brought both hands up and caught the blade in mid swing. The sharp edge cut clean through his gloves and bit in deep into his skin, but stopped before they went into the bones. He couldn't feel the pain just yet, but he could feel a warm wetness immediately forming in his gloves.

Mireya's face hardened as she yanked to free her sword from his grasp. At the same time, Zell opened his hands and allowed her to pull it free. She had expected him to hold on to the blade, and when she pulled, she used far too much force and unbalanced herself. She stumbled backwards one step, and Zell jumped forward to close the gap.

Unstable, Mireya slashed down with her sword—an awkward, desperate blow—but Zell's trick had worked; by catching and releasing her blade, he had managed to get in close to his opponent. As her arm fell to strike him with the sword, Zell caught her wrist, stopping her attack with his blood-soaked gloves.

Fueled by anger and pain, he tugged viciously on her arm, pulling her towards him. As she stumbled forward, her eyes wide with shock, Zell snarled and drove his knee into her stomach. At the same moment, Zell twisted her hand and pulled at the sword, tearing it from Mireya's grasp. The sword tumbled free and landed some distance away, sliding across the floor and vanishing into a nearby fight between a few other students.

Mireya fell over on the floor at Zell's feet, coughing and clutching her stomach. Without her weapon, she seemed much less intimidating. Zell's hands felt like they were burning, and his chest and lungs stabbed with pain each time he sucked in a breath. He looked at Mireya with anger in his eyes, but he couldn't bring himself to kill her and had no idea what he was going to do next.

"This is all YOUR FAULT!" Zell snapped. He gestured at the fighting going on around him. "It's all because of you!"

Mireya looked up at him. "Someone had to do it," she said, her voice coming out in a wheeze.

Zell's fury rose up again and he drew one leg back to kick her. A part of him knew that it was dishonorable to kick an unarmed opponent when she was down, but after everything Mireya had done to Garden, to Ami, to Zell, he figured that she deserved a little bit of unfair sportsmanship.

Before he could finish his attack, Zell heard something approaching. The animal part of his brain panicked, and he glanced to the side, just in time to see a soaking wet and furious Dax charging straight at him once again.

(Aw, hell.)

Zell knew better than to let Dax grab him a third time, so he put his feet down, ducked, and rolled out of the way of the attack. Dax, with all his inertia and forward momentum, couldn't stop himself from charging right past Zell. He stumbled into the nearby fountain wall and just barely kept himself from tumbling into the water again.

Mireya seized her chance. She rolled away and got to her feet, then sprinted off—disappearing into the crowd. Zell glanced at her back and considered chasing after her, but he decided that he had to deal with Dax first before he could worry about Mireya.

(She didn't head towards Rinoa and Ami…)

(… So she's not important yet.)

Zell hopped to his feet and spun around. Dax, his wet shirt and pants clinging to him, looked like a monster with his face contorted in rage and his teeth bared. Zell had only a moment to consider his next action, but he couldn't decide what to do.

With Dax's huge size and giant muscles, he clearly outmatched Zell in terms of pure physical strength. And boosted now by his irrational rage, he'd be even stronger than before. But as Zell had already proven—in their fight in the training center—Zell was the more disciplined and experienced fighter. Perhaps Zell could still win, trusting on his skills to keep him away from Dax's fists and bone-crushing strength, but Zell no longer felt confident about his chances. As he recalled from their previous fights, Dax could easily absorb some of Zell's best blows, while Zell couldn't even deal with one or two of Dax's.

Magic was another option, but Zell felt even less confident about that. Zell's skills with para-magic were mediocre at best, even with the variety of powerful and exotic spells he'd collected from all over the world. And Zell had to wonder, what if Dax was better with magic? Zell had never seen Dax use a spell, but that didn't necessarily prove anything. Maybe Dax was the type of SeeD who hoarded his spells and refused to cast them unless absolutely necessary. It was true that Dax hadn't properly adjusted his junctions when fighting against Ami, but that didn't prove anything either.

But Dax made the decision for Zell by bending over and picking up a nearby bench. Zell's eyes widened and his mouth fell open. The bench was pure metal, with thinner metal slats running across the bottom. The legs and both sides were solid wrought-iron. Getting hit with those would break Zell's bones—if not outright kill him instantly.

(Aw, hell!)

Dax swung the bench to the side, producing a gust of wind that ruffled Zell's clothes. Although the bench must have weighed almost half of Zell's weight, Dax wielded it like it was nothing more than a baseball bat.

Dax charged, holding the bench over his shoulder like a giant war hammer. Zell's only consolation at the moment was that—with both of Dax's hands occupied—there was no chance that Dax would try another one of his suffocating bear hugs.

Dax raised up the bench and brought it straight down at the floor. Zell jumped to the side, missing the bench by hairs. He could practically feel the weight of the bench and the force of Dax's swing as the bench sped past him and embedded itself in the floor, spitting up chunks of tile and leaving a dent the size of Zell's head.

Zell skittered to a stop and spun around, hoping that the bench would get lodged in the floor. But Dax quickly brought it up again and swung horizontally. Zell had misjudged the distance between himself and Dax, leaving himself within range of the bench. Zell brought up both hands reflexively. The bench hit him in his already bleeding hands and continued on, throwing his arms aide and smashing into his stomach.

Something in his torso crunched. The pain was phenomenal, more than Zell expected—and he had expected a great deal. The force of the blow threw Zell back three or four paces. He landed hard on the floor and rolled, absolutely staggered with the pain. A short, stabbing pain that screamed with red agony whenever he breathed.

(Damn… broken rib.)

(… Probably a bunch of broken ribs.)

He ignored the pain the best he could and rolled onto his side, with his back facing Dax. It looked like he was defenseless, too stunned by the attack to do anything but lay on the floor helplessly.

But there was more to it than that. Zell curled up into a ball, hiding his bleeding hands and torn gloves from sight while he summoned up an ice spell between his fingers.

Fortunately, Dax wasted time slowly, arrogantly approaching Zell, savoring his perceived victory. Zell could hear his heavy footsteps growing closer.

Zell turned his head and peered over his shoulder, still finishing the spell.

"What the hell'd I ever do to you, man?" Zell groaned out, every word hurting him.

"I don't like to lose," Dax said with a shrug. "'Specially not to a skinny runt like you."

Dax's self-aggrandizing speech gave Zell the time he needed to finish his magic. He rolled onto his back and flung out the glowing blue orb. Dax's eyes widened, but there was no time for him to dodge. The spell hit him hard in the chest and knocked him backwards. The bench tumbled out of his hands and fell to the ground. Dax himself followed after the bench a moment later.

The ice spell kept Dax frozen to the ground, but it wouldn't hold him forever. Using one arm, Zell dragged himself closer to his downed opponent while forming another spell in his other hand.

"You don't like to lose?" Zell wheezed out. "… Too bad."

And with that, he grabbed Dax's leg and unloaded a torrent of electricity into his foe. Dax jerked and twitched, then went still, his eyes closed.

Zell—utterly spent—collapsed on his back, his arms and legs splayed. His hands hurt, his chest was in agony, and once more he could see little spots forming before his eyes.

(I'm gonna pass out.)

But before darkness overtook him, Rinoa rushed to his side.

"Oh… hey," Zell said, growing more delirious by the second. In his fading vision, Zell could see Squall, Selphie, and Irvine as well. Selphie still rode atop Shiva and sprayed out ice in all directions, but it was clear that Selphie was running out of steam. Shiva's ice cold skin was showing condensation, like sweat, and her facial features were slowly melting, her eyes drooping and her lips draining of color.

"I got you, Zell," Rinoa said, kneeling beside him and getting to work.

"Ami," Zell said.

"She's in the infirmary," Irvine said between gunshots. "Dr. K is lookin' after her. Mireya's nutjobs ain't stupid enough to go attacking the school's only doctor."

"She's okay?" Zell asked.

"She'll be fine," Rinoa said, with her eyes closed in concentration. She began filling him with her white magic.

Instantly, relief rushed into Zell, as if Rinoa had opened a hatch in Zell's side and poured in the world's best painkillers directly onto his worst wounds. Zell's eyes widened and he gasped with the sheer intensity of it all.

"Oh… man…" Zell said, with a shudder.

Rinoa's magic continued to empty into him, knitting together bone and mending torn flesh. His sliced palms healed, the blood stopped flowing out into his gloves, and he could finally breathe again without agony ripping him open.

A minute or so later, Rinoa removed her hands. A dull ache was left behind where her magic had been, but it was nothing compared to the pain he had been in before.

"You okay?" Squall asked, throwing out a fire spell to keep the enemies at bay. Zell nodded and got to his feet.

"Let's finish this," Zell said, punching one fist into the other.

Just then, Shiva screamed.

It was the voice of a three-day-long blizzard in the middle of winter. The howling of winds, the chill of frost, gray skies and deep, white snow. If a storm had a human voice, it would sound like her.

Everyone in Garden stopped fighting and clamped their hands over their ears. Some even dropped to their knees, staggered by the shriek that went on and on and on.

Shiva's mouth dropped open, and kept dropping open. It melted down her chest, to her stomach, then turned into water and dribbled down her legs. Her fingers melted into lumps, then fell in piles of wet mush on the floor. Within seconds, the noble GF was a pile of melting slush and Selphie was standing atop her, both hands on her head, her eyes closed. The last of Selphie's ice slide turned to water and vapor, filling the hallway with mist and rain.

"My head…" Selphie said, dropping to her knees in the melting snow. Irvine grasped her by the shoulders.

"Selphie!" Irvine said. "Selphie!"

"Uh… Selphie?" Zell said, taking a step towards her.

There was a flash of light and a deep, terrifying rumble that shook the floor. When it passed, Selphie got to her feet again, but there was something different about her. The way she held herself, the way she moved. Zell detected a change in the atmosphere, as if the room had suddenly gotten much colder.

Selphie's face twisted into a snarl.

"All SeeDs must perish!" she yelled and she held out both arms. There was another flash of light and a small explosion. Squall, Irvine, Rinoa, and Zell flew in every direction, pushed out by an invisible wall of magic that not even Rinoa could resist. Zell tumbled across the floor, finally smacking into a fountain wall and coming to rest near the cafeteria.

The fighting—which had stopped during Shiva's scream—broke out again, but this time with everyone rushing towards Selphie, desperately trying to stop her. Zell stumbled to his feet, dazed by the attack and confused by Selphie's behavior. He watched her as she stalked along down the hallway, throwing aside SeeDs left and right.

(The hell?)

"Stay back," Squall said, appearing at Zell's side. "It's Ultimecia."

Zell gasped.

(Ultimecia?)

Before he could say anything, he remembered Rinoa's speech inside the infirmary. About how Ultimecia had taken over Ciel and seized the Ragnarok.

(And now it's happening here…)

(But with Selphie now.)

Rinoa and Irvine arrived as well, and the four stood in a cluster, staring at the possessed Selphie and wondering what to do next.

Selphie—or Ultimecia, Zell wasn't sure—turned around. Her eyes met Squall's. Her mouth opened and formed a phrase, but Zell couldn't read her lips. Suddenly, her behavior changed again. Instead of merely stalking through the school causing damage and mayhem, she headed straight for the quad, jogging lightly as she exited the school.

The other SeeDs stood by watching, or ran to help those who had been tossed aside by Selphie. No one dared chase her out into the quad.

"We're the only ones that can stop her," Squall said.

"Don't hurt her!" Irvine said to everyone. "It's still Selphie in there!"

Squall charged forward, with Rinoa right at his side. Irvine was a step behind, with Zell lagging behind them all.

(What the hell's going on?)

"I think I have an idea," Rinoa said as they ran. "I just need to get close to her."

Outside, in the quad, it was a scene of devastation. Before the battle with Galbadia, the quad had been rigged with a number of traps and spells and bombs, all of which had been tripped by Galbadian soldiers and robots, leaving bodies and metal strewn about everywhere. Scorch marks and bullet holes pierced the once pristine floors and walls. The pleasant trees and shrubs planted alongside the walkway were now burned and ruined.

Selphie jumped down the steps, heading for the ocean. Out at sea, Zell saw a half dozen Esthar ships cruising around in circles, their weapons firing at distant targets that Zell could not see.

At the top of the steps, Rinoa paused, clenched a fist, and hurled a white beam of energy down at Selphie. The spell slammed into Selphie's back, throwing her off her feet. She landed in a heap on the floor, giving time for Squall and the others time to catch up with her.

Selphie jumped back up, snarling, and fired off a shot of lightning from one hand. Rinoa used her magic to deflect the spell off to the side, where it hit the wall harmlessly.

Squall and Rinoa reached Selphie first and engaged. Irvine stayed at the top of the steps. He raised his gun to his shoulder and hesitated. He grunted, swore, then lowered the shotgun.

"The hell am I supposed to do, man?" Irvine asked. He looked to Zell, his eyes glistening.

"I don't know," Zell said with a shrug.

Zell turned away from him and headed down the steps.

(What am I supposed to do?)

Rinoa and Selphie faced off with magic, taking turns hurling lightning and ice and fire and water and wind at each other. Rinoa used her new white energy spells and was able to deflect and counter Selphie's best magic. Squall stayed close to Rinoa, tossing out weaker, faster spells to try to keep Selphie off balance. But they couldn't quite close the gap and get any closer to Selphie than they already were.

(Rinoa said she needed to get close.)

(Get close and do what?)

Zell reached the bottom of steps and hesitated. He wondered if he should get involved in the fight. After all, he barely knew what was going on. And the more he thought about it, the more he wondered if he could really bring himself to punch Selphie. Even if it was technically Ultimecia controlling her body, he couldn't see himself attacking her.

(With Matron it was different.)

He didn't know exactly how it was different, but he knew that it was. Fighting Ultimecia in Matron's body had been easier, more abstract. He had been able to set aside his memories of Matron during the fight and focus on his objective.

But this time, whenever he looked at Selphie, he saw Selphie, and not Ultimecia. Despite his best efforts, Zell couldn't bring himself to attack her directly.

(But I gotta do something.)

If experience had taught him anything, it was that Ultimecia would abandon a body if it was no longer useful to her. Once before, she had given up on possessing Edea once it became clear that the other SeeDs were too much for her to handle.

If they could do that again—battle Selphie into submission—then there was a chance that Ultimecia would leave Selphie alone.

Zell bit his lip. He didn't know if that was the right option, but it was the only one they had. Whatever Rinoa's plan was, it wasn't working. The fight was coming to a stalemate, with Rinoa and Selphie still exchanging spells while Squall offered what support he could. But after all the fighting—against Galbadia, against the other SeeDs—Rinoa and Squall were obviously fatiguing. They wouldn't be able to keep this up much longer. And with Irvine unwilling to raise a hand against Selphie and with all the other SeeDs still inside Garden, too afraid to come out, that meant that Zell would have to be the one to turn the tide of the battle.

(I gotta end this now.)

Zell's magic was pitiful, and using it against a sorceress was like trying to put out a fire by spitting on it. And he doubted that he'd have much luck bum-rushing her with nothing but his fists. But Zell, like all other SeeDs, had a Guardian Force at his disposal. With Selphie distracted, Zell would have time to summon his GF and maybe end the fight right here.

(But I might kill Selphie.)

Zell shook his head.

(If I don't do anything, we might all die.)

He bit his lip and winced.

(… I'm sorry, Selphie.)

Zell bowed his head and held out his hands. He clenched his left hand into a fist, then gripped his left wrist with his right hand. He focused on the circle his arms made, imagining that it was a gateway for energy to pass through. He searched within himself and found what he was looking for—the energy that composed the Guardian Force named Bahamut.

The king of dragons awoke and responded to Zell's call.

As the sudden influx of power flooded his system, Zell's concentration waivered.

(Maybe this is overkill?)

But it was too late to turn back now. Zell shut off the rational part of his brain and focused entirely on keeping up the spell, completing the summon.

The cloudless blue sky suddenly turned white and filled with cracking yellow lightning. Selphie and the others paused, sensing a change in the atmosphere. Luckily, Zell was far enough back that Ultimecia did not immediately turn to him and attack him. Instead she spun around and looked up at the sky, oblivious to Zell and his actions.

The white clouds bowed outward, like someone pushing their finger through cloth. The skies burst open with an explosion and Bahamut appeared, flapping his blue, reptilian wings in the air, once, twice, three times.

The GF looked like he was made of both steel and skin, his flesh so hard it looked impenetrable. His long, segmented neck ended in a dragon's face, shaped in a permanent scowl.

Ultimecia—in Selphie's body—gazed upon the wonder of the king of dragons, and smirked. She raised one hand and Zell's eyes snapped open against his will.

It felt like someone had shoved their fingers through his skull and into his brain. Like long, sharp fingernails scratching at the inside of his head, filling Zell with an uncomfortable type of pain that he had never experienced before. He opened his mouth to scream, but nothing came out but a choked whimper.

Meanwhile, in the sky, Bahamut thrashed in the air, beating his wings frantically in all directions, as if he was being assaulted by an invisible swarm of insects. He roared and snapped at the empty air, fire forming in his mouth.

Then he plummeted from the sky, in a limp ball of wings and fury, falling straight for the quad. Rinoa and Squall jumped aside to avoid the falling GF, but Selphie stood her ground, still holding out her arm like a falconer waiting for her bird to return to her wrist.

Something in Zell's mind snapped, like an overstretched guitar string. Zell's eyes bulged and his arms and legs went limp. He collapsed hard on the floor, suddenly filled with pain and weakness.

(I know this feeling.)

(This is what it's like to not be junctioning.)

His augmented strength, his superhuman endurance, his magic—all of it was gone. Instantly. He stared in bug-eyed wonder and watched the sky as the rest of the scene played out.

At the last moment, Bahamut unfurled his wings and caught himself, arresting his fall just above Selphie's outstretched arm. Selphie smiled evilly, and Bahamut reached down with one clawed hand and picked her up, gently placing her on his back. She rode on his shoulders with a triumphant grin while Bahamut roared and flapped his wings, sending a gale force wind across the quad and climbing higher and higher into the sky.

The image of Selphie riding atop Shiva returned to Zell's stunned mind and he realized what had just happened.

(Ultimecia just stole my Guardian Force!)

(Is that even possible?)

Bahamut continued to climb higher and higher, then he stopped. Selphie pointed down at the quad and the fire in Bahamut's mouth intensified, turning into blazing white energy. The energy formed into an orb, and Zell could do nothing but stare helplessly, fully aware of what was coming next.

His arms and legs were still stunned with the aftereffects of having his GF forcefully ripped from him. He no longer had his magic, his abilities, or his strength and he was now staring down the face of one of the strongest Guardian Forces known to the world.

Bahamut leaned forward and the white energy shot out of its mouth in a wide beam, shooting down to the quad almost instantaneously. Zell's vision filled with white light, and he was aware of a crushing pressure forcing him into the air.

It didn't hurt, or maybe the attack had fried his nervous system, rendering him incapable of feeling pain. He didn't know. He was dimly aware that he was flying through the air, propelled by the force of the attack. He slammed into the exterior of the school, which was cold, hard, and slightly damp from the spray of the ocean. He tumbled down from the side, plummeting what felt like a long, long way, before hitting the ocean with a splash.

He started to sink.

He could see, in the murky blue water, the underside of Garden. He looked on with dull amazement. He loved machinery, but he had never been able to see what the school looked like from below. The bottom had always been submerged in water or buried underground. He was fascinated with the shape and design of the school, the elegance of its construction.

Zell realized that he hadn't moved, hadn't even breathed for quite some time. But for some reason, that didn't seem to matter at the moment. The water was comfortably cold, and his head felt fuzzy and vague. He couldn't feel any pain or discomfort. There was only the rushing of the water in his ears and the gentle push as some unseen current carried him somewhere new.

A thought occurred to him.

(Is this it?)

(… Is this the end?)

It felt like the end. He could swim, he knew how to do the motions to swim, but for some reason, he knew he couldn't at that moment. His muscles wouldn't respond. It was as if he was just a passenger in his own body, helpless to do nothing but watch as he sank deeper, deeper into the sea.

The water around him grew colder and darker, feeling heavier with every second.

He closed his eyes.

(This is it…)

Images passed before his eyes.

His friends.

Garden.

Matron.

The orphanage.

Timber.

Galbadia.

Squall.

Ami.

(I'm gonna…)

He was aware of a heavy pounding in his ears.

The pounding slowed.

And then it stopped completely.

(I'm gonna…

End of Disc 3

Please insert Disc 4