Everything stopped except for the rain, and in fact the rain seemed to thunder down even harder. Aside from the rain the only noise to be heard was Sidon's malevolent laughter as he felt stolen strength course through his body. His skin tingled, his hair stood on end and his eyes took on an unnatural glow. It was a feeling that defied any words that Sidon might have put to it. It was sheer ecstasy, beyond anything that he could have imagined.

Hovering in the sky not far away Vegeta watched Sidon's face contort in an insidious smile. A sick feeling settled in the pit of his stomach. This was bad, very, very bad. Infuriated, he pushed all doubts and dark thoughts aside and concentrated on trying to find a way to defeat Sidon in spite of this new development.

Seemingly out of nowhere Chryseis appeared at his side, her eyes wide with shock and horror. "He couldn't do that before," she said. "How the hell can he do that? Shit! He shouldn't be able to do that!"

"Calm down!" Vegeta hissed. "You won't be able to do any good if you lose your head. Now suck it up."

Chryseis took a deep breath and calmed down. "All right, all right, there has got to be a way to get around this. We can just beat him down with our fists, right? How much power did he get from that blast?"

"I put as much into it as I thought would kill him."

"In other words, a lot?"

"Something like that."

"Oh shit," Chryseis muttered.

Down below Tien and Chaotzu had stopped their joint attack on Ades and were gazing skyward. Ades' eyes were also focused upward, blinking furiously as rain pelted his upturned face. The tall dark man chuckled and turned to his two opponents.

"You," Ades predicted with dire certainty, "are dead."

Tien's mouth hardened into a fine line and he narrowed his eyes. "We're not done for yet," he retorted. "You haven't seen the half of it."

"Neither have you," Ades replied. In his hands formed a wicked-looking black ki-scythe. He brandished the weapon and charged at the two smaller fighters.

Tien and Chaotzu dodged, the blade of the energy scythe missing them by a hairsbreadth.

Ades growled and attacked again, this time nicking Tien's shoulder. Blood trickled out of the wound and mixed with the mud and water on Tien's ragged clothes. Smiling Ades advanced again; swinging the scythe with a speed neither of his opponents could have imagined after all the ponderous, power-packed attacks from earlier. Tien and Chaotzu doubled up on Suppression, but as soon as he let up on resisting Ades' Suppression of him, Chaotzu felt himself weaken considerably. He loosened up again and signaled Tien to follow him in a quick retreat from Ades' blade.

"What do we do now, Tien?" Chaotzu asked, catching his breath and eyeing Ades.

"I don't know," Tien replied.

Up above Chryseis and Vegeta weren't doing a whole lot better fending off Sidon's attacks. Sidon caught Chrysies by the left elbow and twisted her arm until he heard bone snap. Chryseis screamed and swung wildly at Sidon with her free, desperate to get him to let go. She kicked him in the gut as hard as she could, but he only squeezed her shattered arm until she cried out again.

"Look at how you have fallen, oh mighty Chry..." the rest of Sidon's mocking words were cut off as Vegeta planted his foot directly on Sidon's nose. The sound of crunching cartilage followed soon after and Sidon let go of Chryseis and grabbed at his face, blood oozing through his fingers.

Chryseis' left arm hung limply at her side, but her right hand was clenched into a fist so tight that her knuckles turned white. "Fuck!" She swore. "Bastard! You're going to get it back tenfold you asshole!"

Sidon wiped the blood off of his face, but more kept coming. The rain washed the blood down his neck and chest. "Come and get me, little girl," he taunted. "I'm not afraid of you or your friend."

The golden auras around both Chryseis and Vegeta flared up brighter than before.

"Let's turn him inside out," Vegeta snarled, a deadly gleam in his eyes.

Chryseis gave an inarticulate roar and the two Super Saiyans charged Sidon. The tall green-eyed man blocked every punch and then lashed out, power raged around him as he smashed Chryseis into the muddy ground below and then turned about to kick Vegeta in the chest, sending him flying backward. Chryseis struggled to her feet and bolted toward Sidon again as Vegeta righted himself.

"Stay back!" Vegeta shouted.

Chryseis continued her assault, disregarding Vegeta's words. Sidon had mocked her, was mocking her, and for that he would pay.

Laughing, Sidon batted Chryseis attacks away one handed. "Pathetic!" He shouted, throwing Chryseis into the mud again.

Doggedly, Chryseis stood up again, she started up toward Sidon again, but Vegeta caught her and held her back.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Chryseis demanded, trying to pull out of Vegeta's viselike grasp.

"We can't defeat him like this, you idiot!" Vegeta snapped at her in a whisper. "You're getting weaker every time he hits you and so am I. Stop acting like a child for a moment and think! There has to be another way! What are his weaknesses? What makes him angry? What will distract him? Think!"

Chryseis glared at him, blood streaming down her face. "I don't think he has any."

"Everyone has weaknesses!"

"Oh, children," Sidon called down to them, "what are you talking about? Not me I hope. Don't you know it's not nice to talk about people when they can't hear?"

Chryseis clenched her right fist. "God damn it!" She swore.

"Don't pay any attention to him, damn you! Can he be tricked? The man has to have a weakness!"

Chryseis frowned. "He... I don't think he can resist Suppression from more than three sources at once, his mind doesn't split like that, but unless Tien and Chaotzu finish up with Ades real quick they won't be in any shape to help us."

"Wait a minute!" Vegeta said suddenly, "I thought that you could only Suppress one person at a time. Why the hell isn't this guy dying? He's only Suppressing me, not you! We should have been able to kill him!"

"We probably could've killed him easily if he hadn't absorbed that blast and turned it for his own use." Chryseis looked forlornly up at Sidon's grinning face.

"Do you think he'd absorb more energy if we gave him the chance?" Vegeta asked, an idea beginning to take shape.

"Yeah but what good would feeding him more energy do?"

Vegeta smiled tightly. "Look at him, he's barely able to keep all that stolen ki under control, if we can get him to take in more..."

Chryseis' eyes widened. "He'll burn up from the inside out," she whispered, not daring to let Sidon hear. "Do you think we can do it?"

Vegeta nodded. "On three give it everything you've got," he said as he leapt into the air.

Chryseis followed close behind, her gut tightening. It was a stretch, but there was a slim that Sidon did not know everything about his power and that he might be tricked into absorbing more ki than he could handle. The two battered warriors circled their enemy and prepared to attack.

Vegeta thrust his hands out in front of him, "One..."

Chryseis good hand went out in front of her as well, power crackling along her fingers as she charged up her attack.

"Two..."

"Oh look they think they can hurt me with their little ki-attacks, how pitiful!" Sidon mocked.

Vegeta pushed Sidon's snide remark out of his mind and concentrated all his power into his attack. If this failed he would have nothing left to fight Sidon with, and the battle would be over. "THREE!" He shouted. "FINAL FLASH!"

"SUPERNOVA BLAZE!" Chryseis shouted at the same time. From her hand a thick beam shot toward Sidon and at the same time Vegeta gathered the last ergs of his strength and blasted at Sidon with all he had.

Sidon cried out, "WHIRLPOOL!" Thinking to repeat the same trick as before. As the spiral of energy drew the attacks toward him and he sucked them into his body he felt his body fill with energy. His skin began to tingle again, but then, as the energy continued into his body, his skin began to burn. "What the...?!" He shouted. Pain shot through him as his body began to break down from all the excess power that was flowing through him. The whirlpool technique could only protect him from so much energy before whatever it could not wrap up broke down Sidon's body, but relatively inexperienced using the technique, Sidon had not known his limits. He screamed in agony as his internal organs burnt up inside his body, and then the scream cut off as his lungs and heart were turned to ash. A brilliant explosion of fire erupted from his chest and mouth and eyes as he was consumed by the stolen energy.

To exhausted to stay in the air, Vegeta and Chryseis dropped out of Super Saiyan and crashed to the ground. They lay in the mud, breathing hard as the rain battered their bodies.

Some one hundred yards away Tien and Chaotzu were trying their hardest to defeat Ades and having little luck. Seeing the trouble Tien and Chaotzu were in, Chryseis tried to get to her feet, but her legs wouldn't hold her and she collapsed onto the ground again.

"If they get beaten," she said as she stared up into the rainy sky, "if they get beaten Ades will kill us. Have you got enough strength left to use Suppression on Ades?"

Vegeta nodded slightly. "Not much. My concentration's shot."

"So's mine, but we only need a little."

"Trouble is," Vegeta observed tiredly, "that when that giant realizes we're Suppressing him he'll come over here and finish us. Three-Eyes and Mime-Boy are going to have to move fast."

"Damned if we do damned if we don't, heh?" Chryseis rasped. "Ready to give it a go?"

"Yes."

Chryseis closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Her mind moved slowly, like a languid, mud-filled river. She wanted to fall asleep, or pass out, or something, but she forced herself to concentrate. She reached out with her mind and caught the faintest reflection of Ades' ki, tried to block it, then lost it again. Reaching out again she caught onto Ades once more and this time her mental grasp held. Slowly and carefully she applied Suppression, surprised at how weak she had become because she was exhausted.

At the same time Vegeta reached out with his mind and latched onto Ades' ki. It was like when he had first been learning Suppression, like trying to dam a flooding river with twigs and pebbles, but he tried harder and eventually he noticed Ades' defenses had been seriously damaged. Ten times harder for every person trying to Suppress you, he thought weakly, the big guy has four people on him now, he's got to fall soon. He'd better fall soon, I don't think I can do this for much longer.

Ades' turned suddenly as he felt Chryseis and Vegeta apply Suppression to him. Knocking Chaotzu away for the moment, the tall dark-skinned warrior started running towards where Chryseis and Vegeta lay. In that one moment of distraction and weakness for Ades Tien shot a ki blast at the taller warrior's back. Ades turned again, thinking he could bat this attack away like he had done so many others, but this time he was wrong. The beam of energy drilled through Ades' hand and into his chest. Eyes wide, Ades touched one hand to his chest and brought it away covered in blood. He opened his mouth, as if to say something, then coughed and fell to the ground, blood pouring from his mouth.

Tien lowered his hand and walked over to Chaotzu to help him up. The small fighter gladly accepted his friend's assistance and together the two of them made their was over to Vegeta and Chryseis.

"Thanks for the timely intervention," Tien said.

"Ditto," Chryseis murmured.

"Can you two fly?" Tien asked, eyeing them appraisingly.

Chryseis' reply was faint. "I don't know about him," she indicated Vegeta by rolling her eyes his direction, "but I'll be lucky if I can even twitch for the rest of the day."

"I'll be able to twitch around noon," Vegeta mumbled.

Chaotzu knelt by Chryseis injured arm and examined it. "This looks bad."

"Eh? That? Gah, just a flesh wound..."

Chaotzu gently prodded her shattered elbow.

"Don't touch!" Chryseis squeaked.

"Yeah, this is bad," Chaotzu proclaimed.

"Don't touch!" Chryseis repeated.

"Um... we have a problem," Tien muttered.

Vegeta opened one eye and peered up at Tien. "What? What do you mean 'a problem'? Spill it Three-Eyes!" He managed to sound demanding despite the fact that he could barely be heard.

"That woman is getting up," Tien answered, pointing.

Thena had struggled to her feet and was now walking unsteadily toward them. Her eyes, however, were not focused on the four battered warriors, but instead on the still figure of Ades slumped in the mud. She seemed to whisper something, her mouth forming the words, "Oh no," but no sound came out. She walked faster, tripping and falling and then pulling herself to her feet again only to fall a second time as she neared the body of her fallen friend. She dragged herself the rest of the way to Ades' side and turned him so that he lay on his back, his dead eyes staring at the sky.

This time Thena spoke, her voice ragged. "No, Ades! Oh no, no, no!" She sobbed, wiping the blood off of his face. "Oh gods no, not you!" She screamed and stood, her body fueled by grief, and stared purposefully toward the four enemy warriors. "You made your last mistake, Chryseis de Curion. You never should have let me live a second longer if you were planning on taking Ades from me. Now you die!"

A ball of energy shot through the rain and struck home. Chryseis prepared herself for death, but was surprised to find that it didn't come. Thena clutched her hands to her stomach, blood seeping between her fingers, a shocked look on her face. Her eyes fixed on a figure hovering in the sky above Chryseis. She fell to her knees, her gaze still locked on the sky, and slumped back against Ades.

"So now I die with you, my love," Thena whispered. Her eyes closed and she went limp as her spirit slipped free of her body.

The figure in the air landed next to Chryseis followed by several other people.

"I thought we wouldn't get here in time," Yamcha said, crouching down to see if Chryseis was all right. She wasn't, he observed.

"Where'd you come from?" Chryseis slurred, the last of her strength choosing that moment to begin to seep out of her.

"When Trunks and Bra felt your ki all but disappear they panicked and came looking for us," said Goku from the front of the group. "We ran into them halfway here."

"Who's we?" Vegeta demanded.

"Me, Gohan, Yamcha and Krillin," Goku replied. "Trunks is here too, but he sent Bra home when he saw us."

"Whoa! We've got a live one here!" Exclaimed Krillin from near the collapsed cave.

"Gotta be Pollo," Chryseis said. "There's one more, a girl, out there," she pointed feebly

toward the place where Chaotzu had stashed Bryseus, "get her and bring her over here."

"I'll do it," Gohan volunteered, he dashed off in the direction Chryseis had pointed.

"What do we do about this guy?" Trunks wanted to know, keeping an eye on Pollo, just in case he decided to try something, if he woke up that is.

"Don't kill him. He's gotta take Bryseus back. Can't have her here, too dangerous." Chryseis voice wavered and she closed her eyes sleepily.

Goku knelt down and pulled a senzu bean out of the pouch on his belt and gave one to Chryseis, and then Vegeta, who was too exhausted to argue. The two sat up, feeling their strength flow back into their bodies as the senzu beans took affect. Meanwhile Goku handed a senzu to Tien and Chaotzu as well.

Gohan arrived, carrying a limp Bryseus in his arms. Chryseis took the girl from him as she stood up.

"Thank you," Chryseis said. She turned to Goku, "give a tiny bit of one of those to the blonde man over there," she said, indicating Pollo.

Vegeta frowned. "Not a smart idea, girl," he said.

"I have to get Bryseus back to our world somehow, and if I went there's a damn good chance they'd have an ambush or something set," Chryseis argued. "Everyone back there is out to kill me now, so it'd be too dangerous. Besides which, this battle may be over, but we're going to have to go to my world and destroy the machine that brought her and the others here. If I get caught or killed there'll be no way to stop them."

Vegeta's eyes narrowed. "Neither is sending one of them back," he said.

"Pollo won't be able to fight tomorrow, and if we're going to destroy that machine tomorrow is when we'll have to go," Chryseis said.

Vegeta's only reply was a grunt of disapproval.

Goku gave a fraction of one of the senzu beans to Pollo, and the blonde warrior woke up. His golden eyes opened wide as he stumbled to his feet, just barely able to function. His eyes roamed around the battlefield. Ades and Thena dead, no sign of Sidon, so he's probably dead too, he thought. His gaze came to rest on Chryseis, Vegeta, Tien and Chaotzu, seemingly oblivious to the others. "You're going to get it for doing this to us!" He threatened.

"Pollo, you don't have to die," Chryseis said. "They wouldn't stop, so they had to die, but you don't. Give up, Pollo, you can't win." She approached carrying Bryseus and handed the girl to Pollo. "Go home."

Pollo glared at Chryseis as he took Bryseus into his arms. "You're a traitor, and I swear, by all that's sacred in this world and all the other worlds ever created I'll kill you."

"You could never touch me, Pollo. Go, take Bryseus and go."

Pollo snarled and reached one-handed into his jumpsuit to retrieve a hard-cased metal controller. "Recall code Beta-Zero-Three," he said into the controller, "engage." A swirl of darkness enveloped him and when it was gone, so was Pollo.

Chryseis watched the spot where he had been for a moment. She should have been happy that she had won the battle, but instead her heart felt heavy. She turned to look at the bodies of Ades and Thena, people who had once been, if not her friends, at least her allies and fellow warriors. "C'mon," she said to the others, "we've got to bury these two and then go home to figure out how we're going to destroy that machine tomorrow."

______________________________________________________________________________

Yehaw!

Here's the news, folks: I've got maybe two or three more chapters to plunk down and then sadly, my story will be done.

In case you were wondering about the names of the enemy warriors, I altered the names of ancient Greek gods to get them. Here's the breakdown: Sidon is Poseidon, god of the sea and storms etc; Ades is Hades, god of the underworld; Thena is Athena, goddess of wisdom and righteous battle and Pollo is Apollo, god of the sun and music etc. Ingenious, huh?

Well keep your eye open for the rest of this story and its sequel.

The Blue Sorceress