Chapter 20: Reasonable doubt

Zell pulled his fist back and sent a swift punch into the shield, followed by another one quick enough that it only appeared as a blur 'Damn!' Zell pulled his hands back and rubbed them soothingly, he'd only managed to hurt himself. With no will to give up, Zell began to throw a furry of quick and hard punches at the wall separating him and Carbuncle.

Carbuncle pushed the shield outward, knocking it in to Zell and making his body slide backwards while he struggled to block and keep his balance. Carbuncle had an easy chance to catch him off guard. The small GF ran at him full speed, dropping the barrier so that he could get past and forming another green barrier around his own body. With a growl seemingly much fiercer then anything that could come from a body that small, he dived forward and ramming him in the stomach, Zell stumble back even farther from the surprisingly painful blow.

Zell quickly caught Carbuncle with both hands before he could fall to the ground, and began squeezing with both hands until the barrier shattered beneath his formidable grip he reached Carbuncle's body. "I'm sorry about this." Zell drew his arm back, about to strike him when Carbuncle created an invisible wall between them just before his hand connected.

"Back off!" Carbuncle pushed it outward he was able to pry Zell's grip off and free himself.

Carbuncle jumped a few steps back and thrust the invisible wall forward offensively at Zell, but Zell was fast and reflexive enough to sense it coming and break through it with a single swift kick. Zell stepped forward and punch downward at Carbuncle, but he wasn't fast enough to hit before Carbuncle evaded to the side, all his fist hit was the ground, leaving a large split in the concrete. 'He's too fast….He's just messing with me.'

Just what Zell thought was confirmed when he felt himself hit another diamond shield with a smirking Carbuncle behind him. Once again he pounded downward futilely against the wall, 'If I know Carbuncle...' Zell continued to pound away at the shield, but this time he studied the GF's face looking on the other side. He was waiting for it, just one little thing…'There!' And he saw it, a small twitch in Carbuncle's expression that came right before he sent the shield expending outward in an attack.

With the right timing Zell ran up the wall just as it expanded away from the GF, finding himself standing awkwardly on it being held up by the centripetal force created. 'If I can just make it to the top then-'

Seeing what was happening, Carbuncle dispelled the barrier sending Zell flying through the air. "That's not gonna work you idiot!"

Zell flipped himself around, landing sideways a light pole and kicked off of it in one fluid motion. He soared at Carbuncle before the GF could comprehend what the human was doing, driving his fist into Carbuncle's chest with the extra force. "That's not was I was doing!"

He knew Carbuncle well.

'!' Carbuncle's body was thrown into the railing guarding the edge of the bridge from the ocean, leaving a large imprint where he'd hit. 'Damn he's strong...' With a loud growl he shook off the blow and jumped to his feet. "Your gonna pay for that!"

'Huh?' Zell was surprised to find himself not tumbling and sprawling painfully to a stop on the ground from his last attack, which he was expecting to do. In fact it was exactly the opposite. Two strong arms had caught him and he was being held a foot above the railroad tracks.

"Zell? What's going on?" The timing couldn't be better.

"Bahamut! Your back?" Zell slipped out of his grip and climbed on to his feet, looking back at the dragon floating just above the ground with out stretched wings. His back looked fine, and after only 3 days, that was amazing. But he didn't have time to talk. "We have a serious problem with Carbuncle, a shadow is controlling him."

"What?" Bahamut looked at with evident surprise, Carbuncle was only looking over him, trying to size him up before attacking. "…I-I understand." Bahamut had known something was wrong, but he never imagined it was that serous. He really started to wonder what it had been like when he was gone. 'Carbuncle...'

Bahamut landed protectively in front of the the boy, he gently pushed Zell back, explaining it to him before he had enough time to object.

"You can't fight him, your not strong enough to get through he defenses."

Zell shook his head negatively, "No way! I can't sit around while my two best friends fight each other." Flashes of Bahamut's fight with Tiamat ran through his mind when he thought about this, only this situation was much, much worse.

He didn't want to do this just as much as Zell didn't, but he wouldn't let Zell get hurt unnecessarily. "You have to…" He spoke in a deathly serious tone, one that showed his own reluctance. "I don't even know if I'm strong enough." Bahamut knew Carbuncle would eventually put up his best defense, when that happened Bahamut wasn't sure if he'd be able to stop him. "Please Zell, just let me handle it."

Zell snorted "No! If we do it together then-"

"That doesn't necessarily mean we'll have a better chance." Bahamut said firmly. "Please... just let me handle it."

There was a tense pause between them as Zell stared angrily at Bahamut, he didn't want to... he couldn't..."Damnit." Finally Zell gave nod of angry reluctance and moved back a few feet.

"Bahamut, your back eh? It doesn't matter you can die with him!" Carbuncle growled, he charged forward head strong at the dragon. An orange shield hovered in front of him as he tried to ram Bahamut with it, but with a gentle flap of his wings he was able to fly above the attack.

"You don't mean that." The beat of his wings increased immediately after he'd evaded, blowing a wall of wind at Carbuncle who was still trying to stop and turn around. "I can tell."

"Don't tell me what I mean!" The small body was picked up off the ground, swept up in the strong current and riped at by sharp surges with in the. Carbuncle grunted in pain, forcing an apposing wall of wind to surround his body with a Wind Shield.

This was Bahamut's chance, he knew the key to fighting Carbuncle was good reactions, while he's using one type of shield, use another type of attack.

"I'm sorry about this." Bahamut abruptly stopped all movement of his wings, falling to the ground and lifting both of his hand towards the other GF, "Flare!" sending a strong explosion of powerful energy rushing over Carbuncle's body, the red haze that cut thorough the wind shield with it's shock wave alone, opening him up to the spell.

A slightly more damaged Carbuncle emerged from the attack with a shell spell already cast, using the smoke as cover to charge at Bahamut before the dragon could be alerted of his presence. Carbuncle knew Bahamut's weakness was his sight, so he tried to do everything he could with out him seeing while he had the chance.

An orange energy shield hovered over his body, glowing brighter as Carbuncle dived towards Bahamut, striking him in the stomach with a burst of the energy and kicking off his chest jumping directly into his chin with an uppercut. Bahamut was knocked back with surprising force realizing Carbuncle launched the shield at him when he attacked, created another one then launched it with his second blow.

He had to admit, Carbuncle's rate of creating defenses was amazingly fast.

"Your done Bahamut!" Carbuncle shouted in a rage, creating an invisible shield under Bahamut that lifted him into the air with incredible speed. Bahamut was instantly pressed down to the unseen barrier by the sudden rush of G-force. Knowing Carbuncle he figured another shield was coming down to smash him from above so he had to move fast. Bahamut rolled over on to his stomach and stayed down low, climbing on to all fours then springing off the barrier.

"You have to fight this, don't let this thing control you." He used his wings to speed his decent to a dizzying pace, he was to slow though to reach his target in time an could only watch as Carbuncle put up a diamond shield around himself.

"Fight what Bahamut? Your so full of it!"

It was an intimidating defense and trying to use a fall to power his attack could easily backfire. He knew the risks of this method thought, and it only drove Bahamut to flap his wings harder, making his body nothing more then a blur as it slammed into the sparkling barrier.

Bahamut managed to break through 7 inches of it, sending chucks of diamonds spraying in to the air as debris, but got a lot of recoil damage to his arm from the failed attempt. 'D-Damnit!' It was painful, very painful. "Carbuncle!"

"I'm sick of both of you!" Carbuncle growled, a highly concentrated look came on to his face while he created an orb barrier around the Diamond Shield. 15 green orbs just smaller then Bahamut's torso appeared, revolving around the shield like satellites to a planet. Carbuncle's attacks were getting stronger, so Bahamut would have to do the same.

He couldn't help thinking that using big defenses like this must have been hell on his stamina.

Bahamut flew backwards away from the orbs, holding his visibly damaged left arm. The dark blue appendage had a light tent of red to it from some obvious internal bleeding caused by his failed attack.

"What's wrong, is the big bad dragon hurt?" Carbuncle's whole body tensed, taking full control of the orbs and lunching them all at Bahamut.

Spreading his wings wide, Bahamut flew to the left to avoid one, letting himself drop a few feet to avoid another two that passed over his head in green streaks. An orb blindsided him, striking him in the side of the head and knocking him dizzily to the left.

The next orb rammed into his chest and pushed him backwards, taking the full force of the blow Bahamut lifted his arms and blocked the one following. Then thrust both fist forward and punched through two more, "!" Immediately realizing his mistake when he felt the throbbing pain in his injured left arm. He bit back the pain with a grunt and dived backwards, spreading his wings to propel himself towards the bridge.

A shock wave of air cascaded outward across the tracks when Bahamut passed confusingly over bridge towards the surround water. Using his natural agility to perform a flawless 90 degree turn to the left and fly along the surface of the ocean.

"It's not going to work Bahamut!" Carbuncle shouted, creating a blank shield under the diamond. It was a misty white barrier that blocked non-elemental attacks that weren't physical or spells.

Bahamut only growled in response, taking in a deep breath and building energy in his mouth. Silver light glowed from a Mega Flare building power, being sure to take in just a little more energy then usual. If he could fire a Gigaflare then he could easily enhance his Megaflare.

A loud roar erupted in the air as Bahamut fired the first of the smaller shots while he flew beneath the bridge, a small beam smashed through the concrete and passed through the diamond shield but was stopped by the blank one.

The rest came in rapid succession, another and another tore through the bridge until a 300 foot hole spanned directly under Carbuncle. The blank shield had seemed to survive. Bahamut let out another earthshaking roar as he unleashed the massive silver beam of the Mega flare, it met resistance from the blank shield but broke through almost effortlessly. The next thing Carbuncle knew he was completely engulfed in the blast.

The small GF screamed loudly in pain, his body was thrown across the gap on the side opposite of Zell. He never expected Bahamut to actually break through his non-element shield, he started thinking about his next strategy while he made his way shakily to his feet. 'Damn he hits hard.' He looked over his smoldering body with his hiss of pain, he couldn't take another one of those.

A small grunt escaped his mouth from the haste he was forced to use in casting a reflect spell on himself, bouncing a Thundaga spell back on to Bahamut.

A pillar of lighting came streaming from the calm clouds, striking Bahamut through the hole in the bridge. The dragon decreased the damage by wrapping his wings around himself and blocking, casting another spell with the same speed. "Blizzards." Bahamut flapped his wings vigorously, surrounding Carbuncle in a wall off wind from all sides.

The wind picked up the ice spell turning it into an actual blizzard, only instead of heavy snow jagged shards of ice were thrown towards Carbuncle.

The smaller GF had expected the wind and already had a wind shield in place, but to his surprise wasn't ready for the ice that came with it. '!' He was pummeled from the super powered spell, emerging half frozen with a host of cuts over his body. "Damn you..."

The ever present green glow on his body started to shine brighter, the light seemed to a measure of his strength that increased the more damage he took. It was almost like a limit break meter that Bahamut watched carefully.

"Diamond Shield!" Carbuncle shouted, renewing the glimmering barrier and unfortunately making it 2 feet thick and with decades of practice he was able to make it completely invisible by pouring more power into it. Carbuncle ran at towards Bahamut, intercepting him just as he rose up from the gap. The smaller body fearlessly dived over the gap with a blue shield hovering a few inches in front of his torso.

That blue shield started to take form, shifting into a spinning drill that struck Bahamut in the chest. Carbuncle created a floor for himself as soon as he made contact, digging into Bahamut's chest as best he could before the dragon was able to throw a punch at him with his right hand. But that's where the problem began, a usually lethal blow only struck the invisible the Diamond Shield.

Seeing this, Bahamut tried to move backwards and out of the attack. "Your not getting away from me that easy!" Unfortunately Carbuncle had created a second Diamond shield behind him preventing any other movement, he was pinned in. Bahamut had to give him some credit, he was good.

Blood started to flow from the point of Carbuncle's drill, finally piercing Bahamut's armored torso and earning a flinch and a growl from the dragon. He quickly reached his limit break,

"Impulse!"

A rush of dark blue energy expanded outward from his body in all directions, sweeping Carbuncle away in it's wake and managing to take, unintentionally, a little more of the bridge surrounding him in the explosion like blast. Instead of continuing to use that energy to attack, he used it to increase his strength and started trashing at the two shields pining with his tail.

His tail was easily the strongest part of his body, it could lift more then both of his arms combined. With one of his arms out of commission Bahamut had no choice but to use his best weapon against Carbuncle. He was reluctant to do so at first with the desire to take it easy on him, but Carbuncle's last attack had caused way to much damage for him not to.

He was even able to get through the Diamond Shield with it, plus some help from his limit break.

Carbuncle stumbled to his feet, a little disorientated from Bahamut's surprise attack.

He was starting to realize…now, it was the shadow manipulating him that started to realize something Carbuncle already knew. An angry dragon was not to be messed with, especially the king of dragons himself. Bahamut had obviously been holding back, but he was starting to get frustrated so Carbuncle had to take his defenses to the next level.

Which raised the question, what's higher then the best?

"Why wont you die already!" The green aura around Carbuncle began to pulse rapidly like a heart beat…what that meant was unclear to Bahamut but he was on guard anyway.

"..." Bahamut soared towards Carbuncle, faking as if he was about to throw a punch but at the last second he flipped backwards at the last second before Carbuncle could put up another Diamond shield. He slammed his Tail into Carbuncle in a fierce uppercut, sending his small body flying into the air painfully.

It seemed like Bahamut was already above him, the dragon moved quick, turning his whole body and striking him with his tail again. Before he could even cry out he was knocking back down into the ground with enough force to leave a crater when he landed.

No, Angry dragons should never be messed with.

Carbuncle felt as if he would pass out right there from 2 hits. The dark tent surround his body began to separate and lift off him in a fading possession, revealing the Shadow that possessed him. It seemed as if he'd finally be free of it, that Bahamut beat it out of him…But it wasn't finished yet, it went back into Carbuncle with a stronger hold then before.

His body became completely black, his red eyes had a strange illumination to them, the only thing that remained was the pulsing green glow. "I... I'm not done... It's not over!"

What was better then the best? Absolute.

"Invincible!" Carbuncle roared with the realization of his limit break, a blinding green light radiated from him in a flash that engulf everything. It was just that, only a flash lasting a half second at the most, but the change only took that long. One of Carbuncle's limit break was a black barrier, an invulnerable defense which made him quite possibly the best GF because nothing could touch him.

"You Bastard, everything was fine until you... You took him away from me. I'll kill you, you son of a bitch!" He wasn't done yet though, he was able to use his second Limit break simply because he was just that angry. "Complete Compression."

Bahamut was suddenly surrounded in an invisible force that pushed down on him from all sides, trying to force into a ball. "What!" The dragon looked around confusedly with eyes wide, wincing violently when he felt the pressure on his injured arm. 'What is he doing!" Bahamut pushed outward against the force but it continued to push down him, the more he fought against it, the harder it pushed back.

He was forced to use all of his strength to keep himself being compressed into a ball and smashed to pieces, unless Carbuncle's attack gave up there was no way Bahamut would be able to get out of this one. '!' With a strained roar, Bahamut fired the crimson beam of Mega flare at Carbuncle. It erupted into a powerful explosion that shook the whole bridge, blowing away just about everything else, but it wasn't powerful enough to leave a single scratch on the barrier.

"Bahamut!" Zell stranded idly at bay on the other side of the bridge's constantly growing gap, he was being force farther and farther away from the fight.

"Zell, stay back it's too dangerous!" Bahamut shouted.

"NO! I can't keep standing around. Your in trouble and-"

It came with out warning, something so unexpected that it stopped both of them in their tracks. "EEegghhhh!" Carbuncle shouted in pain behind the shield, shaking his head violently just short of thrashing. It came so suddenly that it made Zell finch.

"Carbuncle..." The golden aura of limit break washed over his body like a volcano had erupted beneath him, "The hell with this!" Zell moved back a few feet with a deep breath. "Here goes nothing." Zell shook any apprehension out of his head and ran for the hole separating him from the fight.

"Zell! Stop, you'll never--" Bahamut realized that his cries were in vain when he saw Zell leap fearlessly over the gap. He looking in amazement as the boy flew an incredible. In human distance, closer….closer.

"Damnit!" Zell, falling just short, reached out and grabbed the edge of the other side of the bridge, holding on to a large metal wire that was protruding from the broken concrete.

Zell grunted as he pulled himself up, as soon as he got to his feet he charged head strong toward Carbuncle. With his arm drawn back he punched the shield as hard as he could, throwing a barrage of punches and kicks with as much strength he could draw up. No effect.

"You were always stupid like that!" Carbuncle shouted between heavy pants. "You can't get through!"

Zell yelled in frustration with a blue aura elevating over his body from below, it was like watching a raging storm over the ocean. "Damnit!"

That blue energy stopped coming abruptly, changing into a form that rose like a strong current of air from under him. Flames ignited briefly on his shoulders in growing from his Burning Rave limit, extinguishing only when the energy was averted.

Zell drew his left arm back, slamming it into the ground hard enough to start an earthquake.

A large split drove through the ground towards Carbuncle's barrier, the tip of the energy that lay beneath was visible at the head of fissure, slicing through the concrete like an on coming shark om the ocean. It could be seen connecting with the black wall, erupting into a strong blast that rushed over the shield with an outburst of white flames.

The attack managed to sever the part of the bridge Zell was standing on. It shook violently, tipping backwards and diving toward the water. '!' "No!" Another blue aura rushed over Zell as he struggled to keep himself from falling back with the receding platform that used to be connected, with one final push, Zell used My Final heaven.

He ran up the falling island of land mass, moving past Carbuncle's barrier and disappearing over the horizon with surreal speed, it was like watching a dream in motion, something that completely defied reality.

Bahamut looked around, more or less confused since he'd never seen this Limit Break before. 'Where is he?' Everything was deathly silent, except for the sound of heavy breathing from Carbuncle who was feverously working to increases his shield's power in a hurry. "Huh?" Was Zell's attack really that powerful?

...A blinding light radiated from the opposite side of the horizon "CARBUNCLE!" Zell's voice rang over the area as the light came in to view. He was rushing towards them at a greater speed then when he started, a white light illuminating from his fist that made his body little more then an outline against it.

"GO TO HELL!" Carbuncle shouted, the invincible barrier flared, creating another one on top of the original. That was it, he was tapped out, he couldn't do anything else but faltered in exhaustion.

Zell dived over the gap, with in the blink of an eye he slamming into the barrier with full force and unleashed the stored energy in a vociferous explosion. Some how through the deafening noise one distinct sound could be heard, the sound of something shattering.

"Whoa!" Zell found himself suddenly falling forward, crashing to the ground in a fall hard enough to draw blood and bruise every place that made contact. In fact he felt the sticky liquid running down his forehead in large volumes "…"

Bahamut fell out of the hold Carbuncle had on him since the GF could no longer fight against his resistance, he unable to believe what he saw below. "He…did it?…But how!"

Bahamut descended down below to the bridge in a hurry, with out hesitation he knelt beside the boy. "Zell..." He wrapped his arms and Zell who lay face down on the ground much weaker now.

Carbuncle lay weakly before them him, hardily strong enough to even think. He roared the roar of the demonic wolf inside of him…he didn't even use words now. It was too late, he was completely gone now...

"Bahamut…I think I know how to beat him…" Zell said solemnly. He stumbled on to his feet with Bahamut's support, he couldn't stand on his own anymore.

"Huh?"

"I remember him telling me…well, he didn't tell me exactly."

! - ! - !

"Tell me." Zell said, scratching behind his ear.

Carbuncle squirmed and made a soft almost cooing sound. "No…."

"Tell me."

It was becoming harder and harder for him not to give in. "No…."

"Please?" Zell said in his most pleading voice.

How could he possibly resist that? "If I tell you will you stop doing this?" clearly indicating the scratching behind the ear.

"Yes."

"Then I wont tell you…, ok, I'll give you a hint, I hate sleeping to long and waking up stiff. In fact, I think I need a message right now... Please?" Carbuncle looked up at him with big blue eyes and the cutest face he could manage.

Zell laughed, "Why not."

! - ! - !

"I can't believe I didn't realize what he was talking about until now. His weakness is Break, he can be petrified." Zell told him.

No one would ever guess that considering Break wasn't the most used spell in the world and Carbuncle had a shield for everything else. Though, no one had seen Carbuncle use a beak spell.

"Well…Let's do it." Bahamut junctioned himself to Zell with out another thought.

Bahamut's strength filled him, allowing him to keep standing, to keep moving. 'Thanks.' Zell slowly made his way over the weak Carbuncle, limping heavily. "Triple."

Carbuncle growled at him, the green glow forming again, charging another Limit Break.

"I'm sorry I have to do this…Break!" Zell lifted his hand toward Carbuncle, watching a wall of gray rock engulf the green GF and harden for a few seconds before shattering.

It failed.

The second wall surrounded the GF and hardened…

it failed.

The third wall surrounded the GF and hardened….it failed.

The green glow around Carbuncle's body began pulsing.

'I can't give up...' "I wont let this thing take you! Break!" With a loud yell another wall of rock surrounded Carbuncle and hardened…

it failed.

"Damnit! I won't let it!" The second wall surrounded Carbuncle and hardened…it was effective.

When the spell's dust cleared Carbuncle lay in a case of rock, a statue.

With a sigh, Bahamut unjunctioned himself, waiting standing by side by Zell. He had to catch him to keep him standing.

"It worked." Bahamut sighed.

"I don't get it, that Shadow should be gone already." Zell sighed, he was losing hope fast. Maybe the shadow finally won...

Maybe.

Bahamut looked at the petrified Carbuncle and then at Zell, "There... maybe a way, if there's anything left of Carbuncle I know a way we can get him back now that he can't fight us."

Zell immediately hugged Bahamut, that lost grimmer of hope returning. "How!"

"We Junction, I junction to you then we both junction to Carbuncle."

"Bahamut you're a genius!"