Lina lay unconscious in her cell, completely oblivious to the blast on the north wall or Zell jumping into the room with the gang following a second behind him to rescue her. The guards aimed the guns in their direction to threaten fire, but Irvine had his own Exeter out, ready to fire at will. And he did just that. A second later, the majority of the guards were struggling with themselves on the ground.
"Who are you!?" one of the guards demanded, although his voice was shaky. At the sight of Irvine's Exeter, all the guards seemed to back away. They could tell a few were thinking about running for it--sprinting even if it would become absolutely necessary, but they did not merely because they could not--not with Irvine's smirk so challenging. They could sense somehow, even though they had not been informed that Balamb Garden's Alpha Team was of the worlds' finest mercenary soldiers.
"Where the hell is Lina?!" Zell demanded, ignoring the officer. He saw a few of them flinch with fear, and knew he had the upper hand. Maybe in any regular mission this would be of some significance, but right now it was not. All he wanted was to find Lina, to see her soon, so he could take her into his arms and make everything back to what it was.
"You mean that thing?" Zell grabbed the man by the collar and roughly jammed him against the wall.
"Unless, sir, you want me to personally tear off a limb or two, I suggest you direct me to Lina Heartilly immediately. Understood!?" Zell threatened. The guard's eyes widened and pointed a shaking finger down the hallway. Zell pushed him aside and told Irvine to wath over him and all the other bastards in this room while he left. It was a given that Zell had taken control of this situation rather than Squall.
Zell rushed down the hallway and at the other end saw the thing figure of his beloved Lina sprawled across the ground in the cell on the opposite side of the room. "Lina! Lina!" he called out, reaching for the barred doors, but the force field flung him backwards. "Hand over the keys!" he ordered the guard, but the guard dodged their attacks and slipped. There was no chance in hell he'd let that "thing" out of its cage.
He was about to round the corner until he suddenly stopped and began to back himself back into the room. Irvine followed him shortly after, his gunpoint targeting the guard. While the man lifted his hands into the air, Quistis approached him, grabbed the key from the officer's uniform pocket and tossed them over to Zell. Zell caught them and stuck the key right into the keyhole while resisting the pain of the force field. It was as if every single strand in him were writhing, but he didn't stop there. He pulled the door open with his hand and flung it aside. When he was through, he pulled his hand back and saw that his skin was fairly burned. The others exchanged worried looks--this was a little too much.
"Excuse me! Excuse me, could you move please?" a boy called out as he pushed his way through a crowd growing from the hallway. He pushed his way through Irvine and the others, then right past Zell who still had bloodied hands wrapped together. "I've got the solution." The boy turned around and looked hard at Zell for a second. "I called you." He turned back around and took two things out of his pocket, one of which he tossed to Zell. Instinctively Zell caught it and took a good look--it was the framed picture Lina had kept by her bedside. "I took the liberty to pack her things for her and bring them here so you could take them away with you. And don't worry, there wasn't much to pack. My name's Ron, you're her boyfriend?" Ron said all this working with the other item, detaching something from it and connecting it to the side of one of the bars.
"Yeah," Zell said. He looked over Ron shoulder as he worked, poking a little gray box in between to bars so that it was floating on the force field. He flipped the lid of the box and typed in a certain password. "Um... thanks."
"No problem, just get her out of her and make sure she's safe," Ron said. He pressed his palmed down against the device and a green light sprung out from it. A second later, Ron turned around, his hand slightly bloodied and ran back, pushing everyone back with him. The little gray device emitted a stronger red light until it suddenly exploded into a small fire and lay helpless on the ground. "Go on ahead."
Zell was two steps ahead of him. He'd run through a large part of the flames and the remaining force field and reached Lina's side despite the injuries. Lina had fallen unconscious on her side, and so he pulled her over--she was a mess: thin as a twig, a tiny bit of blood at the edge of her lips, and red marks on her arms that suggested her stay had not been comfortable.
"Lina..." Zell whisered and pulled her up into his arms. She was so cold, but alive--he could feel her there. "Let's get you home." He lifted her from the ground and towards the exit.
It was a struggle to get back out the way they came as they had to fight with Lina's protection in mind; meanwhile, in the fray, the boy named Ron disappeared somewhere into the world.