A/N: The final chapter of the Zelos/Colette side-story is now at hand. Will Zelos live through his massive trauma and live a happy life with Colette, or has Zelos met a premature end?

I've decided to not go with an ending songfic as I had previously planned, due to the shortness of this story. I'll reserve that for the end of "Unconditional Love". I believe it deserves it more. 'sides, I couldn't think of a good (enough) song to go with this story. Hope no one's disappointed.

Finally, after this, it's back to writing my 2 main stories. I've learned my lesson XX

Anyway, enjoy! Please leave some reviews! Despite the fact that the story will be over now, any reviews I get know would greatly appreciated for they will help me with any future stories I write.

Oh, and for those of you keeping track of time, the first part of this chapter will take place about 9 days before Lloyd and company face Abyssion in "Unconditional Love", and the second part takes place about 2 days before said event. Why the timeline? Well, you'll see later in "Unconditional Love".

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Chapter 4: Snowlight

Colette paced around in the living room of her house as she awaited word from the doctor who was performing the examination on Zelos in his bedroom. She was beginning to fear the worst, that being that he wasn't going to make it after the beating he took or something else along those lines.

She shook her head in frustration. "Ugh! Stop thinking like that, Colette!" she kept telling herself, but to no avail. She continued pacing and wondering how Zelos was doing. Finally, she felt that she could take it no longer and hurried toward the door leading to Zelos' room. Before Frank could stand up and protest, the door opened on its own and out stepped the doctor. He finished closing up his bag and adjusted his glasses.

Colette gently grabbed the doctor's coat and shook it lightly. "Doctor! How is Zelos?! Is he… is he…"

The doctor put his hand on Colette's shoulder. The look in her eyes was heartbreaking but he couldn't change the news just to fix that look. He took a deep breath as he prepared to answer. "Miss Colette, Zelos is still alive."

A look of great relief and happiness came to Colette's face. "Really?! He's going to be ok?!"

The doctor looked over at Frank. They slowly nodded to each other. Frank had an idea as to what the doctor was talking about. Shaking his head, he put a hand up as if to say "wait."

"However," he started, "he hasn't woken up …yet. He's… he's in a coma Miss Colette."

Colette's happiness turned back to despair. Although she was relived to hear that he was still alive, she understood that being in a coma wasn't much better. "A coma? But I… is he going to wake up?"

The doctor slid off his glasses and put them into the breast pocket of his white shirt. "It's hard to say, really. I can't get make an accurate evaluation of the condition of his body, due to the presence of several internal injuries. Theoretically, he could wake up at any moment and, well… go back to being Zelos. However…" He didn't say another word and instead looked downward.

Colette tugged on the doctor's shirt, unsure of how to assess the situation. "However what, doctor? Please tell me."

Frank knew now for sure about what the doctor was going to say. Upon realizing this, he moved closer to his daughter and put his arm around her in a half-embrace. "Colette…"

The doctor sighed and looked back up at her. "Miss Colette, my educated opinion is that he is more likely to… die while in his coma. It could happen at any time. Months, weeks, days… hours from now. It's hard to say, either way."

The tears began to flow freely down Colette's face as she buried her head into her father's shoulder. The doctor put his glasses back on and looked away, unable to bear the sight of the weeping girl. "I am so sorry Miss Colette."

She looked up from the safety of her father's shoulder, her face red and wet from sobbing. Her soft, blue eyes showed so much pain that anyone who bore witness to them shared her pain. She sniffled once and spoke again. "I-is it ok if I see him?"

The doctor nodded slowly. "Of course."

Without saying anything, she threw open the door to Zelos' room and ran inside. The doctor picked up his bag once more and made his way toward the door. "I'm sorry Frank. There was nothing I could do."

Frank knew this already. So did most of the rest of the town. Everyone saw what shape Zelos was in after his fight against the ogre. He was already in bad enough shape, but after the beating he took… "I know doc. Thanks anyway. I'm sure Colette appreciates it."

The doctor nodded back and made his way out the door. Frank turned around to join his daughter in Zelos' room, where he found her kneeling next to his bed and holding his hand. He sat down in a chair nearby and said nothing.

Colette leaned close to Zelos' face and planted a tear-soaked kiss on his cheek. "Zelos… no matter how long it takes, I won't ever leave your side. You're my hero… I won't let you die!"

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One Week Later…

Frank peeked inside of Zelos' dimly lit room to see a very lovely Colette holding Zelos' hand. She was wearing the same exact dress that she wore to the Meltokio ball when she was still adventuring with Zelos and her other friends. Just like before as well, he hair had been trimmed a bit, leaving it shorter than normal, and tying it back into a single braid. Frank was both heartened and saddened by what he saw. He was indeed proud of her devotion to a single man but wished so much that Zelos could see her like this. He walked in quietly and lit another candle in the room. "Colette, honey, aren't you going to the Snowlight Festival?"

His daughter turned to him and smiled. "I don't think so father. If I did, Zelos wouldn't have anyone to spend it with."

Frank half-smiled. What she was doing was quite commendable, but she did need to have some fun at some point or another. "I see. So that's why you're all dressed up, huh?"

She nodded. "Yup. We're going to enjoy the festival together." No matter how hard she tried, she just couldn't maintain her smile. She looked back down at Zelos and rubbed his hand. "If he passes, I… I don't want to be away when it happens. I promised him that I'd always be there." She turned back to her father with tears beginning to form in her eyes. "I don't want to break that promise."

Frank leaned forward to hug his daughter and she leaned into his shoulder and sobbed. He just didn't know what to do. Zelos wasn't showing any signs of improvement and everyone was under the impression that he could die at any day… any hour… any minute. Hope was burning dimly and grew more so as many of the townsfolk, who had come to respect Zelos, gave up on him.

"I understand honey," he said softly to her. "But maybe you should go out and have some fun with the townsfolk. Even if it's only for an hour, I'm sure they would be thrilled to see you. I can stay here and look after Zelos. I promise that nothing will happen to him."

She sniffled once and looked up at her loving father. "Promise? Just for an hour?"

He nodded. "Promise."

She smiled weakly and hugged him once more. She took Zelos' arm and placed it across his chest. She stood up and walked towards the entrance of the room. She turned back to her father, the light from the candle creating a beautiful shine in her teary eyes as she did so. "Thank you, father." She then turned to Zelos. "I'll be back soon, Zelos." She then left Frank's field of view and walked out the front door."

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It was just as Frank had said. Seemingly everyone at the festival in the town square felt that they had to hug Colette and give their condolences to her as she walked past them. What came as a surprise to her though was when everyone wished for Zelos' quick and full recovery. This warmed her heart to no end. She was glad to see that everyone was finally coming to accept him. The only thing that saddened her now was the fact that Zelos wasn't around to bear witness to the praise he was receiving from the once doubtful townsfolk.

Frank was also right about Colette's need for a good time. She had an absolute blast at the festival and took part in several of the contests, including a ring toss and dance contest which she both won. She won the dance contest by performing the same silly dance she had done with Lloyd and Genis in Meltokio with some of the children of Iselia. The dance was meant for children, but child-like innocence refused to ever let her mature like most other women did.

The snow began to fall once more as her hour of promised time at the festival was nearly over and created quite a beautiful scene. The small Iselian orchestra began to strike up a very slow but pretty song as people all around began to choose dancing partners. A few of the young men in the village had asked for Colette's hand in a dance but she politely declined all of their invitations, saying that she had to get back home and look over Zelos. She was prepared to leave when one of the children came rushing through the dance floor in Colette's direction.

"Miss Colette! Miss Colette!" he cried as he ran towards her. Once he reached her, he knelt over in an attempt to catch his breath. The rushing boy had caught everyone's attention and they all looked toward him and Colette.

She knelt down and tried to calm down the child. "Calm down. What's wrong?" she asked with a soft tone of voice.

The boy looked up with a hard-to-read expression on his face. Still huffing and puffing, he said, "M-Miss Colette! It's Z-Zelos! He-"

A loud gasp was heard from a woman in the far back of the crowd. Everyone looked in their direction, trying to determine the source of her shock. Colette stood back up and tried to see what all the commotion was about.

All that could be seen were the people in the back as they parted way for something. She looked down as the child began tugging on her hand excitedly without saying a word. "What's wrong?"

The child pointed in the same direction as the parting crowd. "Lookie!"

She looked back towards the crowd and almost feinted when she saw finally saw the source of the commotion. From the crowd emerged the one person she never expected to see there: Zelos. His wings were shining brightly in twilight-lit night as he limped towards Colette. None of his bandages were showing, for they were covered up by the fine suit he was wearing… the same one he wore when he danced with Colette in Meltokio. His fine, red hair was braided in the back and, along with the suit, gave him a very sophisticated look. He smiled weakly as he approached Colette.

"Z-Zelos!" Colette exclaimed. "You're alive?!"

He gave her a slight bow. He didn't go far though, for he was still feeling immense amounts of pain in his back. "Lady Colette, may I be so honored as to have this dance?"

She didn't know how he was able to pull through against such incredible odds, but… right now, it just didn't matter. Her ocean-blue eyes shone like crystals as they watered up and she said, "Yes. Yes of course!"

The two joined hands, minus Zelos' crippled one, as an excited crowd clapped ecstatically for them. The music was struck up once more and everyone resumed their own dancing, always keeping at least one eye on the unlikely couple of Zelos and Colette. Their own dancing was particularly slow-paced and this was considering that it was meant to be a slow-dance in the first place. However, given the condition of Zelos', it was a miracle that he was even able to dance. None of this seemed to bother the two, as they seemed to be lost in their own little world.

Colette rested her head on Zelos' chest. "Zelos," she said softly. "No one thought you were going to make it. It's truly a miracle."

Zelos coughed and chuckled. "Heh. I-It'd be more of a miracle if I didn't hurt so badly."

Colette looked up at him and smiled. "Zelos, you know you should be resting. We can go home and-"

Zelos put a gloved finger on her lips and smiled. "Later. I want to enjoy this moment with you. After this, I may not be up for a while. I wanna savor this dance with you while it lasts. Plus, I… ah… wanted to tell you something."

She closed her eyes. "Yes Zelos?"

Zelos took a very deep breath of the crisp winter and flapped his spectral wings a few times. "Colette, you've been far too kind to me and well… I've really grown quite fond of you Very fond, in fact. What I'm trying to say is… ah…" The pain in his back was beginning to flare up worse than before, but he was doing his best to ignore it. There would be time for it to rest later, after-all.

She opened her eyes and looked at him. "Zelos?"

There was no turning back now. "Colette, I lo-… I love you Colette."

Her eyes had never been opened so widely in her life. She literally jumped for joy as she held on to his good arm. "Really Zelos?! Really?!"

He had done it. He had truly made her happy. He wished he could've done more, but, in his heart, he knew that she couldn't possibly be happier. The look on her face displayed this quite clearly.

"Zelos!" she exclaimed, causing everyone to turn their full attention to them. "I-I love you too! I'm so happy!" She fully embraced him and he could feel sharp tinges of pain where she was holding him. He didn't care though. He was just too happy to care. He held her with his good arm as the crowd cheered again.

As the snow began to fall more heavily on the village of Iselia, Colette's pink wings came into existence and shone brightly in the twilight. The two pulled back and gazed into each other's eyes, enjoying the warmth that each other's exuded. Finally, the two angels drew closer together to share their first, but certainly not last, kiss.

From afar, Frank smiled. "What a fine night for a miracle."

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And… done! Hope everyone got the ending they were hoping for! Despite the fact that the story is now over, I would appreciate if everyone left reviews anyway. They'll help me in the future, and plus I just want some reflections and stuff. Thank you for using your valuable time to read this story, and I hope you all enjoy the rest of "Unconditional Love!"