Diablos By: Van Donovan a Final Fantasy VIII shonen ai 12 January 2000 ------------------------------- Disclaimer: This might be the first in a series of Final Fantasy VIII stories where I write the characters into shonen ai [and possibly eventually yaoi] positions. The story is based off my actual game, and so the battles are "Real". I'm writing them as I see fit, and as I play, so I personally don't know what is going to happen next with each character, but I'll try to make it intersting. ^^;; As always, if you don't know what shonen ai and/or yaoi is before reading this . . . then be warned, you might not like it [although most likely, if you ARE reading this, you will like it]. Anyway, enjoy. ------------------------------- The three boys sat on the steps to the Tomb of the Unknown King to catch their breath. They'd defeated the Brothers and Zell had taken the new Guardian Force under his command, but all three were still tired. Squall, as usual, had fared the best, but Zell had noticed his own hit point damage had been higher than Squalls in the last battle. That make him a little cocky. "Hey, I'm gonna go see if that Draw Point has refiled yet." Zell stated aloud, hopping to his feet. Squall ignored him, but also got to his feet, knowing they needed to get back to the Cataway Mansion before long. Irvine just lounged on the steps, his hat tipped over his eyes, soaking up the sun. "Damn, nothing there." Zell announced to the others who didn't care. "How come Squall always gets to draw?" he complained. "He's the leader?" came Irvine's silky smooth voice from under the hat. Squall said nothing, but just started walking towards the exit of the Tomb. "Yeahyeah." Zell grumbled and started after Squall. He wasn't ready to go back to the city yet. The Tomb here had a nice tranquil feel to it, and he knew there were no monsters lurking about where they were. Trying to think of something to stall them with, Zell called out. "Hey, whatever happened to that lamp Headmaster Cid gave you?" From somewhere under that too-small jacket of his, Squall produced the bronze lamp, and waved it once, but kept walking, his back to Zell and Irvine. "Hey whadda y'know, stocked one Protect." Irvine mused, as he strolled away from the Draw Point Zell had just checked. "WHAT!?!?!" Zell rounded and clenched his fists, shaking with anger. Irvine walked past him, laying a hand on his shoulder as he did so. "Chill man, it's just a Protect spell." "It's the -principal- of the matter!" Zell retorted and then stalked after the other two men, unhappily. "Whatever." came Squall's quiet remark. The SeeD leader had stopped, and was actually studying the lamp Zell had mentioned when he and Irvine finally caught up to him. "Y'got any idea what it is?" Irvine asked. "No." Squall replied. "I thought you might." "Not a clue." the sharpshooter answered and crossed his arms, rocking back on his heels and looking at the sky. "Mebbe s'th'kind y'rub, y'know? And a genine pops out to grant a wish?" Zell offered. Irvine and Squall exchanged perplexed looks and then glared at the blonde. "What?! It could be!" Zell defended. "Headmaster Cid told us to be prepared before we used this." Squall replied, as serious and pan-faced as ever. "Doesn't sound like genine material t'me." Irvine agreed. Zell humphed and kicked the ground absently. "Well, s'not like its gonna be some horrible plague that'll kill us or something. I mean, the Headmaster wouldn't give us something that would kill us." Zell stated, and Squall nodded, slightly. Irvine rubbed the back of his neck. "Well . . . I dunno about that . . . but after those Brothers, I think the three of us could take on anything." Zell nodded and leaned in, looking at the lamp. Irvine dipped his hat back, so he could see better. Without futher qusetioning, Squall activated the lamp. The sky darkened. "The heck?" Zell mused. A shriek-cry made all three spin around. Before them, hung in almost suspended animation was a grusesome dragon-like bird creature, its leather wings pumping to keep it afloat. Zell took a step backwards. Irvine swallowed hard. Squall stepped forwards, drawing his Gunblade to the fore. Irvine reacted similarly next, getting his rifle ready. Zell, knowing a battle insued, bent, streching slightly, then dropping into a fighting pose. "Who dares disturb my sleep?!" the demon beast asked, focusing on the three pathetic humans before him, preparing to wipe them out of existance. As usual, none of the boys answered him. Squall moved first, drawing Demi from the beast. Irvine powered Siren, to see what sort of damange a Guardian Force could do to this badboy. Zell took the initative to begin casting Protects on everyone else. Demi took hold and did a whooping amount of damange. Zell casted his first Protect on Squall. Then Diablos, the demon-dragon-bird, casted its first Gravija. Irvine dropped to his knees, obviously quite drained. Right after the attack finished, he casted Siren. The Guardian Force didn't do as much damange as the three hoped she would. Squall and Zell were both low on HP too. Zell cursed, realizing he hadn't stocked up on Curas before this battle, and casted Protect on Irvine instead. Squall ignored both his own status and Irvines, and attempted to draw Demi from Diablos again. His draw failed. Irvine casted Curas on himself, and then Zell casted Protect on himself. Diablos continued raining Demi on them, and showed no signs of fatiguing. "We've gotta run from this battle!" Zell shouted, feeling the most useless of the group. What good was a high HP if your draws failed each time, and you couldn't heal?! He was just burdening Irvine and Squall by making them cast Curas on him when his HP got down. "No good, we can't run." Squall stated darkly, drawing Demi again without fail, and casting it back against the monster. Right after Squall's attack finished, Irvine managed to cast Demi as well, and send it back out against Diablos. Zell felt himself cheer inside. He didn't dislike Squall at all, but it was good to know Irvine was a good enough magic user to be of help too, beyond Curing. He tried to draw himself, but failed once more. Irvined casted Curas on Squall again, bringing the Gunblade user back up to 100% efficency. He was perplexed though, why each Demi attack was doing less and less damange. No one would realize until the battle was over what it meant. Zell threw out another Protect on Squall as the other wore off. Suddenly he was struck down by another Gravija. He dropped to his knees, seeing the flying red beast swimming before his vision, and then he fell flat on his back, the sky darkening and vanishing. Squall too was on his knees, but casted his own Curas on himself, to get back into the battle. Irvine turned to cast Curas on Zell, knowing he could probably withstand another attack from Diablos before curing himself. His heart caught in his throat, seeing the him laying there though, quite obviously dead. He didn't stand a chance against Diablos' next on slaught of Gravija. He fell to the ground in agony, and passed out into an abyss of black-pain. Squall hissed to himself as he casted Curas on himself. He'd seen Irvine just standing there when Diablos casted the Gravija. With Zell's Protect worn off him, he'd known the cowboy wouldn't stand a chance. Knowing even he would die if he tried to take Diablos on one-on-one, he turned to Irvine and casted Life. Irvine woke and stood, and methodically casted Curas on himself, while Squall stupidly attempted to draw Demi from Diablos again. The draw failed. Irvine looked to Zell again and felt sick seeing the other there dead. Why had Squall revived -him- and not Zell?! "The hell Squall, Zell has Protects!" Irvine hissed as he casted Life on the blonde boy. Squall ignored him, drawing and casting Demi again. The damange done this time was significantly less than previously. Irvine casted Curas on Zell, bringing him up to a fighting level again. Zell turned and looked at Irvine as the cowboy healed him. He was in time to see Squall and Irvine get hit with another Gravija from a now-enraged Diablos. "Irvine!" he shouted, but caught himself, realizing the other wasn't dead, just seriously down. "Protect Squall!" Irvine shouted back, and casted Curas on a seriously depleted Zell. Diablos attacked Squall with Demi, but the leader was able to take the attack and Cure himself. Irvine dropped to his knees again, panting, knowing he was very near death now . . . if he had a rating system of 1 to 800, he'd nearer 40 than 400. As if knowing he was in the grace of whatever God there may be, Irvine casted his only Protect on Zell seconds before Diablos rained a Demi on him. Zell took the otherwise leathal attack with only minimal damage. "Irvine, cure yerself demmit!" Zell shouted, going through his spells, and throwing a Protect on the sharp-shooter. Squall, in a moment of uncertainy and realization that Irvine was being stupid and choosing to save Zell and not himself, casted a Curas on the cowboy. Irvine, completely ignoring the wellfare of his body, drew out his gun and fired upon Diablos. The dragon beast just growled. Seconds later Zell followed in suit, running bravely up to the flying beast and punching the life out of it. "Too tired . . . must sleep . . ." the bird-dragon croaked, and then vanished to join the three on their travels. The sky became blue again, and the trickling of the water through the Tomb of the Unknown King came back. All three boys dropped to the gound, panting. Zell threw his head back, skyward, listening to the pounding of his heart. Irvine dropped his gun on the ground and wiped his forehead. "I thought for sure we were dead back there." he panted. "Th'Hell were y'thinking?" Zell started, almost at the same time, ready to chide the womanizer for his stupid actions of not curing himself when he had the chance. Squall forced himself to his feet, the least weary of them all. He assumed coming back from the dead must be more physically draining than just constantly healing oneself. "I was saving your ass, Zell, don't you forget that!" Irvine shouted back, pointing a finger at him for emphasis. "Th'Hell am I good for!? YOU'VE got the Curas!" Zell shouted back. Squall finally intervened. "Enough. It's over. Lets head back to Deling." and with that, he started to head out again, ignoring the two other boys behind him. Irvine got to his feet, stashing his rifle away. He walked over to Zell and offered a hand to the other. "Listen," he started, as he helped Zell to his feet. "sometimes we have to save each others asses before we save our own." He shrugged and flashed one of his charming smiles that he usually reserved for pretty girls. "Truth is, I didn't like seeing you dead there one bit, and I could give a rats ass about what happened to Squall, or myself really. Consider it a spur of the moment thing. I thought it was all over for all of us anyway." he added as they began walking, and then put his arm around Zell's shoulders. They both stopped at the same moment and looked at each other. Zell with a perplexed faced, Irvine with shock, as if the arm around the shoulders was a conditioned reflex he did to girls who he flashed his smile for. He quickly removed his arm and coughed into that hand. "Aaahaha . . . whoops." he muttered and took off after Squall. Zell crossed his arms, cocking a hip. "Huh." he mused, watching Irvine jog a bit, as if to catch up with Squall, but then slow down before quite reaching him. He just put his hands behind his head as he started to walk again, grinning as he did. Things weren't that bad after all. Several little fights later, after Zell had had his fill of testing out his new Brothers Guardian Force on all the beasties of the area, he called the group to a halt. Everyone was healthy again, and they were almost back to Deling. They'd all stocked up on Curas, Thundras and other goodies, and Zell'd had a blast hitting the Wendigo's with the Brothers and watching Irvine finish them off with Siren. He was grateful that Squall wasn't crushing them first off with Shiva, and letting him level the Brothers, but he was still a bit shocked that he let Irvine finish them off with Siren and not taking the ending himself. "What was the Number for that sword ID thing, anyway?" Irvine asked at the break. Zell's eyes sorta bugged out, because he hadn't even bothered to look. "Don't tell me we gotta go -BACK-." he whined. Irvine cast him a devious little smirk-grin. "I've got it." Squall replied, turning away from the two. Zell and Irvine looked at one another. Zell faltered, and then began on a competely random topic: "Anyway, I've already got three Guardian Forces, and Ifrit is already leveled up good and the Brothers are going my way, and you only have just one, so I don't need a third, so you can use him, since I have him right now . . ." Irvine just laughed, which shut Zell up. Squall glanced over his shoulder, to see Zell slightly red-faced, more likely from being laughed at then blushing, and turned back to the direction of Deling. "Alrightalright, I'll take Diablos. After all, it was ME who saved your ass, so you could throw that finishing punch, eh?" Irvine said, and tousled Zell's hair with his right hand, grinning. Zell laughed in reply, enjoying being able to joke around with Irvine after hanging out with somber-quiet Squall and chipper-but-dense Selphie so much. They waited a moment longer, while Irvine Junctioned Diablos, and then the three were off again, to assassinate a Sorcercess and rescues a Princess . . . Squall taking a silent lead, and Zell and Irvine walking shoulder to shoulder, joking and grinning all the way back.