Chapter 19: Hard Fights
"He's fast, I'll give him that." Nida few along side said, as close to the bridge as he could get while Zell looked out the opposite window for any signs of Carbuncle.
"This is kinda strange…Shadow's heading for Esther and Carbuncle's heading for Esther, think there's some connection?" Cho asked.
"It must be, if Carbuncle's being possessed then the Shadow is probably leading him toward the same place." Zell said.
"Hold on." Nida called back, veering the ship to the left to a void a quick spike from Shadow. Another spike trailed after the first, but the Ragnarok was able to avoid it by lowering underneath the bridge hovering just above the water
"Should I attack him back?" Nida asked. "Might slow him down. Or at lest distracted."
Seifer shook his head and finally spoke up. "No, that will just make things worse. Just keep following him."
'Hmm...' Nida studied his expression, easily able to tell he was still thinking. He'd never seen Seifer…so quiet and serous, and though he didn't mean this as an insult, this was the longest he'd ever seen Seifer actual think. " I'll have to fall back some or he'll tear us apart."
The ship rose above the bridge and reduced in speed, watching Shadow move with his usual agility through the train station at the end of the bridge. Shifting through the train cars and following the track in to the Great Salt Lake.
It became much harder to follow him in this naturally obstructing terrain, Nida quickly lost sight of him. Unclear if Shadow would follow the path into Esther or stay in the frozen land to avoid them. "Damn…" Nida grunted, circling the ice cap trying to find the Shadow again. "Where going to have to land, I lost him completely.
! - ! - !
Nida landed on the small area of land where the train station ended and the ice started, the only area that was flat or stable enough to hold the ship though it was a real strain to get it in the position.
"Good luck, I hope you find him." Zell said, clearly about to separate from them. He was going back to the bridge to find Carbuncle while they were heading into opposite direction
"Same to you, talk so sense into Carbuncle for me." Nida said, giving Zell a small wave before slipping past the Ragnarok in to the Frozen Salt Lake with Seifer following silently behind.
Cho waited as Nida and Seifer left, looking towards bridge attempting to gather his thoughts. Finally he decided just to ask as directly as possible …"Tell me honestly, is there a chance Carbuncle will be back to normal after this. I mean, will there be anything left of him?"
Zell folded his arms and sighed, "I'm not sure, I don't know how this works but we'll find out soon enough." He'd never thought about it, there was a good chance that the part of Carbuncle's personality and mentality destroyed by the shadow would never come back. The only thing keeping Carbuncle from being an empty shell was whatever he had repressed.
Cho dropped his head with a sigh, wondering how everything could get so badly in 7 days. He'd grown really close to Carbuncle in those 4 years Zell was gone. He wanted to help, but right now he had to go after Shadow, Zell was going to have handle this. "I'll be back as soon as I can to help…I'm sure Carbuncle will be fine, he's strong." He said, trying more so to convince himself then Zell, the boy managed to force a small smile before going after Nida and Seifer.
"I hope your right." Zell stood where the bridge became the tracks of the train station and gazed out on to the water.
Just as he expected he saw a blue light near the surface, drifting toward land at a surprisingly fast rate. 'This is it.'
"Carbuncle!" Zell shouted, watching the blue light float to the surface and revealing Carbuncle with an aura colored bubble surrounding him. It was his water shield. "Your not getting through until you talk to me."
With no other way to get through, Carbuncle jumped on to the bridge with the small question of how Zell managed to get here before him. The very last thing he wanted to do was see Zell standing in his way, he hoped desperately that he'd knocked Zell out back in FH, at lest long enough to lose him.
He couldn't control himself, he didn't even know where he was going. Something was leading him, forcing him to do what he did to Zell. 'Move! Please just get out of here.' Carbuncle shouted in his mind, hoping his junction with Zell was still holding…
No, it was completely severed, the Shadow had done an excellent job of what it set out to do. Completely isolate him, it drive him insane so it would be that much easier to gain complete control of him. It was working.
Carbuncle's body began to glow a green aura, an impish smirk coming on to his face "I'm going to enjoy this." 'No I'm not! Zell….please just run! I can't control myself!' Carbuncle pleaded in his mind, finding that his thoughts were also trying to be suitably manipulated by the shadow. Carbuncle could see it…everything was closing in on him…
"Ahhh! What's happening!" Carbuncle shouted, clinching his eyes and holding his head between his paws.
Zell looked at him a raised eyebrow, he didn't expect this... "What's wrong with you?"
Carbuncle could see everything going dark, he felt his body…his consciousness, his very being forced in to a ball and cast off in to a deep hole. He was falling... No, he couldn't be falling, he was standing on the ground... No he was falling! He was spinning too, and everything was so dark...
Carbuncle's eyes revert back to their normal blue color. "Stop it! AHHHHAH No! Help me! Someone! Anybody!" He screamed… and then it stopped... 'Huh?' That's when he realized he was hallucinating, again.
It was only a matter of time before it really happened though…
Zell ran towards Carbuncle, trying to reach him before… He was knocked off his feet when a barrier was put up in front of him. Carbuncle's eyes returned to the glowing red and he attacked, charging at Zell jumping on his chest while.
A green barrier appeared under Carbuncle, pushing down on Zell oppressively, it was suffocating him. But Zell was stronger then he looked, even with his hands pinned down against the ground he was able to push the barrier off of him. With an actual grip on it, Zell punched through the barrier, grabbing Carbuncle with one hand.
"Sorry I have to do this but--" Zell drew his other arm back and sent a strong punch in to Carbuncle. The small GF was sent flying backwards, smashing into a light pole and falling on to the rail road tracks.
"Heh." Carbuncle shook his head to dispel the hit and climbed to his feet, the glow on his body growing a little stronger.
'What is that?' He didn't know what it was but Zell knew he was in for one hell of a fight now.
Carbuncle was one of the strongest GF's in existence, it wasn't because he had any actual strength. His defenses couldn't be toped, and blending with his speed made a dangerous combination. He was so dangerous because he could use his defenses to attack, and if he couldn't hit his targets, he could use defenses to trap his enemy. If he got his enemy trapped in his barriers, he would automatically do his strongest attack. Smashing an opponent from all sides and crushing them beyond recondition.
This would be the toughest fight Zell had and would ever face again, and not just physically.
! - ! - !
Cho quickly took the lead with his speed, paying no attention to Nida's warning to slow down on the ice. As a result he fell often, but quickly sprang to his feet and continued forward as if it hadn't even happen. The temperature quickly got to them, making the whole search even worse.
There were many paths but luckily only one definite road, and it had snowed recently so Shadow left behind footprints making it much easier to track him. He really must have been out of it to make a mistake like that.
Cho ran up the slippery hill leading to a cliff over looking Esther, but lost his footing on the slick ground and fell, again. "Damnit…" He growled to himself, looking ahead towards Shadow's footprints he could see that the wolf had fallen a few times also, about 5 or so.
Determined not to give up, Cho took a step back and charged at the slope. Running as fast as he could even though he missed every other step and was only a few inches from falling, but he still managed to stay on balance until he reached the top. He stumbled and fell, the boy found himself at Shadow's feet, showing that they were much closer to him then they originally thought.
"Why are you still following me!" Shadow barked, growling a warning as Cho climbed to his feet.
He shook the snow from his hair and wiped the cold powder from his face. "Because you keep running!" Cho shouted back, getting a row of spikes shooting up out of the ground in front of him for a response. Cho stumbled backwards, one of them just barely grazing his noise and forcing him to fall back to avoid the next. "!" He was caught by Seifer who was using his gun blade to climb the ice with Nida holding tightly to his shoulders because he couldn't make it up himself.
Shadow took one step back, a black liquid running off his body into the ground in preparations for his next attack. "Damnit Shadow! I'm not going to fight you." Cho said firmly, getting another of spike shooting upward out of the ground. Cho fell against the wall, escaping this time with a cut across his forehead.
"Damnit, What the hell are you doing?" Seifer lifted his gun blade but Cho pushed it back down, determined not to let any harm come to Shadow.
"We didn't try to kill you! Stop acting like this!" Cho shouted angrily, pushing himself off the wall and standing face to face with Shadow.
Shadow only growled again, the black liquid that had seeped off of him and covered the ground rose up and surrounded Cho in an imprisonment of blunt black spike like bars. It was close but left enough space in-between for Cho to move a little.
Even with the threat hanging over him, Cho didn't waver an inch, though Nida started to get nervous.
They stood silent for a few seconds, each wondering what the other would do, some to nervous to even move from fear of reaction. With so much possible of happening, no one expected the loud roar that erupted from behind them. Everyone flinched from the sudden sound, including Shadow, which made his repressed attack slip on accident on to and unsuspecting Cho.
The darkness surrounding him closed in, engulfing his whole body in a tight, suffocating squeeze. The mass of back that had taken the shape of bars spread out and engulfed him It sent a few spike's through his body, Shadow was able to stop the full force of the attack after only 3 or 4 spikes protruded into Cho. The attack was so fast there was no way he could have stopped even that from happening.
"…No... I didn't-" Shadow's voice trailed off as the darkness dispelled and Cho fell to the ground, bleeding over his clothing making it unclear were he'd actually been hit. "I didn't mean too-" Though Shadow thought that they had tried to kill him, he never meant to harm Cho, it was why none of his other attacks hit.
Cho looked towards Shadow with a shocked expression, but his look immediately softened when he saw how…surprised... and regretful Shadow at what he'd just done, he looked like he couldn't even believe what he just did. Cho wrapped his arms around his torso tightly and cringed in pain. 'It was... it was an accident... he didn't mean to...' One that he'd be extremely mad about later.
Seifer and Nida ran to his side, Nida immediately dropped to his knees (something extremely hard with a broken leg.) lifting up Cho's shirt to find the wounds.
"Cho, are you alright?" He asked worriedly, using his shirt sleeve to wipe away enough blood to see where he'd been hit. "Come on Cho, speak to me!" one through the stomach, two through his chest, both away from the heart, and a final on in his side.
Cho squinted his eyes and clasped a hand over the two holes in his chest. "It was…an accident…"
Shadow began to back up with wide eyes and more tears that he couldn't control.
Even with his amazing reflexes and awareness, he was so out of it that he fell off the edge of the cliff. Tumbling down towards the base of the hollow lake at the bottom.
"What do you mean accident?" Seifer asked.
"I mean, that shadow didn't mean to do it. You could tell by looking at his face that he screwed up." Cho bit down on his bottom lip and pressed his hand even harder against his chest to relinquish the pain.
Nida sighed, standing up with less pain now that his body was getting use to the sudden movements again. He picked up his fallen crutches along the wall and slid them under his arms. "Stay with Cho, and keep some pressure on those wounds. I'll be right back." Nida called back, walking with limping steps towards the edge of the cliff.
"Nida?" Cho had to pause to keep from crying out. "Y-You can't go after him... at lest not in your shape."
"I'll be alright, just wait for me."