Alright Guys quick announcement here. Although I originally said that the last chapter would be a little shorter, I got carried away in pursuit of perfection. Chapter 34 was over 9'000 (no joke intended xD) words – Chapter 35 is over 10'000. As such I decided to split it into two parts to make it more manageable, but don't worry, both are up! Enjoy. . .

Chapter 35a: Last Sunset – Part I

"Vegeta, are you sure about this?" Goku asked.

Vegeta said nothing for a while; he only continued to stare across the nondescript flat of land to meet the eyes of his foe, gauging his strength and trying to calculate whether or not he was actually up for this. He'd experienced this before; the same kind of dilemma had stricken them in their fight against the Majin, only this enemy was more powerful – far more powerful. Then again, so was he.

"You just concentrate on making that Spirit Bomb as big as you can Kakarot. I'm ready to give up my life to buy you time, but I won't give it up for nothing, you hear?"

Goku recoiled slightly upon hearing the extent of Vegeta's resolve, though finally he nodded before taking his stance.

Chronus laughed. "You think I don't see your plan? You think I'll let him make another one of those attacks?"

"The way I see it Chronus-" Vegeta began to stride forwards with a confident, taunting grin. "You'll never be able to stop him, because you'll have to get past me first. I am the Prince of all Saiyans; the honour of being Kakarot's opponent belongs to me alone."

Chronus allowed himself a smile of amusement, closing his eyes and turning his face down in a momentary lapse of concentration.

"Wrong move Chronus!"

The hiss of Vegeta's energy tracing behind him could be heard as he threw himself at full speed towards his target. Chronus looked up and straight into the sights of an oncoming fist. The Prince's attack hit nothing but air though, as the lord had warped away at the last moment with Vegeta realising all too late that he was right behind him.

"Super Bladed Thunder." Chronus said plainly.

Vegeta turned, noticing first of all that the Master had the sword in his hand once again, right before an arc of crashing black lightning jumped from the blade's tip and struck him with a direct hit. His body went into complete seizure from the voltage of over a thousand electric chairs, sending his muscles into chaotic spasms and his bones into charred sticks. Trunks had always wondered what would've happened if that attack had hit him during his fight with Seni, and with his father's screams of pain now echoing through his mind he felt he had some idea at last.

Vegeta dropped involuntarily the moment the technique ceased; his legs felt too shaky to contain him and his mind began rattling away, struggling to regain focus.

"Now. . ." Chronus turned to Goku, still amassing energy from the entire cosmos after charging for only a few seconds. He walked slowly and menacingly over to the determined saiyan, savouring that look of brave resolution as a facade for the terror he felt within. "That was over quickly wasn't it?"

"Guess again!"

"What?" This time it was Chronus's turn to be caught off guard. As he turned back to where he'd felled the blue saiyan Vegeta was already back on his feet, seemingly unharmed by the last attack and rushing towards him with renewed fury. A heavy, metal capped boot was then brought up from the leg of the Super Saiyan 5, knocking Chronus some two hundred metres across the canyon with a mouthfull of his own teeth.

Vegeta landed and took just a few moments to catch his breath.

"Vegeta! You okay?" Goku called over, having finished contacting the numerous Kais.

"I can do this all day just make the damn bomb!" chastised the Prince. Chronus's energy surged as he blasted away the rock formation he'd been kicked into as Vegeta rushed to meet him, taking their battleground away from Goku's delicate workplace.

Casting aside all distractions, Goku became completely lost in thought, so much so that he completely forgot where exactly his physical body stood. All sounds were blocked out and his eyes were shut, visualising the life force of the plants and animals he drew energy from across the galaxies. His entire consciousness was devoted to making this work; for once he took Vegeta's advice and ignored all his doubts and worries, placing absolute faith in his friend to be able to hold off Chronus for as long as it took for him to finish making it.

Even despite being drained already, the people of the Earth contributed as much as they could upon their champ's wilful command. Mr. Satan himself was so devoted that he almost lost consciousness from donating his energy, but Goku was determined to put it to good use. Goten, Trunks, Krillin, Tien, and every fighter retired or otherwise gave huge quantities of ki to make the bomb formidable already.

Vegeta's head bobbed back, leaning away from a punch aimed at his face before a second fist came from his side and slammed into his temple. But Chronus wasn't done there. Using his oddly elongated arms the Master painfully grabbed hold of Vegeta's cobalt blue tail and held him upside down before him, like a hunter curiously inspecting their kill. Before Vegeta could even struggle a fist was forced into his gut compelling a measurement of blood to spill from his lips and cascade across his nose and hair. Again and again Chronus drove his fist into the Prince's stomach, but still Vegeta remained conscious for another ten strikes before closing his eyes eventually.

After another two punches for good measure Chronus observed Vegeta's unresponsive face carefully. He held the saiyan up to his face to inspect him more thoroughly, gauging whether or not he was dead or merely unconscious. Unfortunately, neither was the case.

Vegeta suddenly spat out a sea of blood to shower Chronus's face, using the demon's inevitable recoil as a chance to let fly a close range blast and free himself from his grasp. Without a moment to spare he charged into a perfectly timed combination safely drawn out to give him a chance to back up in the aftermath. Naturally Chronus remained relatively unfazed; Vegeta's last attack drove him back a few metres, but in no time at all the fiend's broken nose and dented cheekbone rebuilt themselves anew.

Against his better judgement Vegeta snarled in anger and attacked again. He was supposed to be buying time, but the fury Chronus instilled in him made sure that the Prince was completely provoked and dedicated to wiping that smug grin from the Master's sneering face. He engaged Chronus in a trade of high speed punches so fast that their fading afterimages constantly made it seem as though he threw five in a single moment, yet despite his speed Chronus wove in and out of each one, merely studying the saiyan until his time arrived to hold out a single blocking arm.

Vegeta's fist rebounded painfully from reinforced bone as Chronus retaliated. Five powerful hooks fell in consecutive blows one at a time before the Prince managed to retreat to a safe distance, taking much longer than usual to regain his stance after taking such a beating. Chronus once again sported a grin of the most evil malevolence before taunting the saiyan further.

"Didn't I beat you already? I'm surprised you even had the courage to show your face here again."

"One time was enough Chronus! You may have beaten me before, but one thing you should've learned from your predecessors is that not finishing a saiyan off is the worst mistake you can make!"

Chronus allowed himself a laugh, once again utilising a calm and polite manner of speech. "Well I'd better get to work then hadn't I?"

Even before he finished his sentence the Master had already begun to surge a massive amount of destructive ki into both hands that hissed with the same cackling of black thunder that had been aimed at this very planet before killing Raditz instead. Vegeta made another sound of irritation; a throaty growl emitting from the back of his throat that conveyed a mere fraction of his true anger. He bounded forwards in a determined leap to interrupt Chronus before the attack was done, though his flight was cut short by an arm as thick as an Earth-dwelling tree sprouted from the fiend's chest and intercepted his flight with a massive fist catching him off guard.

It occurred to Vegeta that Chronus had used the ability he'd bestowed to Octavius as he spun uncontrollably through the air, but even worse was the attack he charged up now; the technique that none of his Vices had managed to learn; the blast that had ended the life of Raditz.

Move! He told his body, trying desperately to regain control as he spun like a bundle of coat-hangers in a dryer. Get out of the way!

"DARKNESS BUSTER!"

Right as he felt sensitivity return to his limbs Vegeta was suddenly overwhelmed by the black jet of light embedded with streaks of the darkest violet, designed to tear his body to shreds and obliterate everything that stood in its path. The sky became shrouded with storm clouds once again upon the technique's presence and its sheer intensity created a phenomenal explosion, sending a charred and no doubt dead or dying Vegeta headlong into one of the farthest canyons away from them. Smoke billowed from the cavernous tomb as Goku's concentration faltered. His consciousness returned to his physical form in witnessing the bleak wreckage right behind a slowly descending Chronus, his cape fluttering in the wind behind him.

"Vegeta!" Goku bellowed. The Spirit Bomb ceased growing in the saiyan's moment of distraction. Vegeta's power had dropped off his scopes and from the smirk upon Chronus's coloured lips his suspicions seemed to be confirmed. The sound of the demon's steel boots slowly padding towards him filled Goku with the inevitable terror that went with being on the verge of death. Anxiously he checked the progress of the Spirit Bomb.

No good! At this level he could swat it away with one hand!

"I must admit your friend there gave me more trouble than I bargained for." Confessed the Master, closing the gap between the two titans with every passing step. "But unless you have another ally of that level waiting in the wings your end is at hand. Even both of our brothers never stood a chance and your saiyan Prince leaves for the afterlife as we speak."

Agonising moments of silence passed between the two of them. Without any reply available Goku could only close his eyes and concentrate on not letting his emotions get the better of him; whatever happened he couldn't let go of that Spirit Bomb, but without anyone to protect him what good was it now?

"Wrong!" came a voice.

With a look of bitter resentment and the utmost horror Chronus turned to his right, and Goku his left. Some twenty yards away Vegeta staggered through a drifting haze of smoke and soot, favouring his right leg and gripping his shoulder to stop blood from escaping. Not that it seemed to do any good; across his mass of midnight blue fur clots of red decorated him as battle wounds from the previous attack. His black pants were torn in gashing strikes across both sides of his legs and a bleeding graze trickled from a spot near his left temple, but regardless, Vegeta was still alive, and better still, maintaining the Super Saiyan 5.

"How?" demanded Chronus. For the first time he looked truly angered; stricken with fury at this pesky thorn in his side. "How did you survive that?"

"What?" Vegeta gasped, forcing himself upright. "You think something like that would stop me? You think you can fight me like I'm some kind of annoyance? I said I'd stop you and I will! That's all there is to it! . ." Vegeta took a minute to catch his breath before sporting a look of ferocious rage despite his critical condition. "So tell me Chronus: Is that all you've got?"

With a roar of anger Chronus suddenly blasted off from the ground in a lunge straight towards the royal saiyan. It was clear that despite his boasts Vegeta couldn't hang on much longer, yet the pest's reluctance to die coupled with the audacity with which Vegeta addressed him shattered the beast's collected composure. Goku shut his eyes and braced himself for the worst, and in his hyped up state of aggression Vegeta welcomed the rushing death that charged towards him. Chronus closed in with a leading overhand punch filled with all of his power and hatred, threatening to crush the Prince where he stood until a familiar voice rung through the air.

"You're open!"

As a streaming ray of hope a Kai-clad saiyan swooped down from above and intercepted the looming Chronus with a crushing kick to the jaw merely a fraction of a second before his fist made contact with Vegeta.

"KAAA!-" The fighter hovered in midair, charging up a ball of the most vivid blue.

"MAYY!-" The ball swelled suddenly as light poured out from all directions.

"HAAA-" Chronus looked up as he sailed through the air; his new opponent had caught him off guard, and now he'd follow through on his attack.

"MAAYYY!-" The saiyan traced his eyes after the soaring form of the enemy he'd gotten the drop on, finalising the attack as the tiny sphere inflated to the size of a large beach ball.

"HAAAAAA!" Like a bright blue cannon the Kamehameha blasted away from the fighter's palms to engulf the vulnerable Chronus, kicking up endless seas of crumbling pebbles as it rocketed across the planet.

The Prince had been lucky; in his fatigue he'd been wide open – that attack would've no doubt knocked him unconscious or even killed him if it struck true, but he'd been bailed out of trouble at the last moment by the black haired warrior that now landed before him, turning around and revealing his identity.

"Gohan! What are you doing here? I thought I told you to stay away!" said Goku.

"Shut up Kakarot!" Vegeta ordered. "Just focus on the bomb already – I'll handle this." With that, the Prince turned back to the son of his rival, stood confidently and ready to fight after his initial lucky shot.

"I know what you're gonna say Vegeta and forget it." Said Gohan. "I'm not going anywhere, so if you want me to leave then you'll have to drag me away, and something tells me you don't have enough time to do that."

Vegeta growled and looked back to Goku. In placing trust in him to get Gohan out alive, the saiyan had gone back into his trance-like state, focusing everything he had on creating one enormous blast. But if their places had been exchanged then the outcome would be no different; there was nothing either of them could do to get rid of Gohan. He'd come prepared to fight.

"You'd better not get in my way." Warned Vegeta, reluctantly giving in. "And I can't fight at full strength if I'm trying to cover you."

"Don't worry, I might not be on the same level as you guys, but I have gotten stronger since my last fight."

Suddenly the ground erupted like a flaming hot geyser of steam from the raw power of Chronus's energy ripping apart his rocky grave. Back to his fullest strength in no time at all, the tyrant now sported a manic, crazed look in his eye; the kind they'd glimpsed from some of his creations – a sign of him losing it completely. Fighters that utilised their anger in battle came in two kinds: the kind who attacked in a blind rage to only weaken their style and the kind who focused their aggression to enhance their power. Vegeta figured that Chronus, like himself, was the latter type.

From a well of his own energy Chronus summoned once again the curved, jagged blade that he'd utilised against both Hyperion and Gogeta. It was a weapon for all out offence – abandoning all protection and dedicating every move to destroying the opponent.

"Super Bladed Thunder!"

"Move!"

Gohan didn't need Vegeta's order. In perfect tandem the two saiyans launched themselves away in opposite directions before the serrated arc of lightning carved up the spot they'd been stood upon a moment ago.

"Whip of Torment!"

After he glimpsed Unidecimus's ability being conjured within Chronus's free hand Vegeta instantly felt a slashing sensation like barbed wire lash across his ankle and tie around it, trapping him in midflight before he could retreat any further. He felt his ankle join the long list of bleeding body parts as he was jerked downwards straight towards the other arm containing the fiend's handy blade.

Vegeta twisted his body just in time to avoid being mowed in half by the sword, but at the speed at which he'd been pulled to the floor the saiyan still crashed into the rocks at the Master's feet. He rolled away just in time to avoid his skull being crushed under the weight of Chronus's boots twice before Gohan mercifully intervened. He charged the armed demon and forced him into a complex blitz far too simple to hit Chronus, though it diverted enough of his attention away for Vegeta to kick himself free of the green whip's snare.

Within seconds Vegeta was back on his feet right on cue to push Gohan away in sensing that Chronus was about to go back on the offensive. Sure enough, the caped lord retaliated with a vertical swing of his energy-coated sword just as the Prince blocked the way. Using Super Saiyan 5 speed Vegeta tilted his entire body to the right to avoid the move, but Chronus wasn't finished by a long way. He copied Gohan's technique of completely bombarding his foe at high speeds, slashing away at Vegeta as the saiyan pushed his body to its very limits in order to avoid the barrage of slashes. What hits he couldn't dodge completely Vegeta had to suffer as surface cuts shredding away at his chest and arms, resulting in more than a few drops of blood hitting the ground and staining Chronus's edge before the onslaught was over.

"Vegeta!"

Gohan launched himself into the fray again, skimming his heavy kick across Chronus's chest and marking him slightly before the deity managed to block completely. Using his moment of distraction Vegeta once again mounted an offensive. With Gohan at his side the pair quickly fell into a pattern of flooding attacks at their swiftest speeds in synchronism at the steady Master. Even despite having eight limbs flying at him in surprisingly excellent teamwork Chronus still weaved in and out of each punch and kick flying his way before resorting to blocks as the onslaught grew more rapid.

With Vegeta stepping well-practiced footwork across the uneven terrain Gohan mounted his attack elevated almost two metres in the air at an angle slightly different to the Prince's to avoid kicking him in the head. Looping kicks and overhand, rolling punches rained down from above, and before long Vegeta seemed to break through Chronus's impenetrable guard. Ducking under a lazy parry, the Prince arched his fist up and over the sword, swinging it in a hammer-like motion towards his unguarded opponent.

Using godlike reflexes, Chronus saw the error of his ways and suddenly backed off with a gliding dash backwards across the canyon floor, escaping from the attacks of the two some fifteen metres away and baiting them to come closer now that he'd regained composure and gotten within an ideal range.

Unfortunately, one of them did.

"He's mine!"

With his adrenaline fuelled to an intoxicating buzz and a mind eager to prove itself Gohan rushed forwards. He saw the opening in Chronus's defence, with the event never occurring to him as a trap or a feint to gain his impatient attack.

"Gohan get back!" called Vegeta.

But it was already too late. Gohan closed in on his target with a charged up fist of energy swinging into sudden nothingness. Chronus had teleported away from his attack, and with a whispering, mocking laugh breathing down his neck the saiyan hybrid knew he'd made one of the biggest mistakes of his fighting career; the kind that didn't go unpunished. As he moved to turn upon instinct the sharp pain of Chronus's blade stabbing through the lower region of his back and piercing right out from an odd point in his stomach drowned out every other sense and took over his body.

"Gohan!" In a hasty assault Vegeta raced after the son of his rival, closing in quickly on the turned back of the demon Chronus.

"Gravity Manipulation."

Under the surprising increase a thousandfold in the density of his immediate environment Vegeta slowed considerably; his bones caved in more than they had already and the wounds covering his body set ablaze with a pain he'd rather not remember. But he knew he'd beaten this technique before; this attack could be conquered through sheer willpower, and yet before he summoned up the resolve to push past it Chronus had turned on him yet again.

Without the chance to move Vegeta felt the razor-sharp blade rip through his skin in a critical slash dragging down from his clavicle by his right shoulder to the already damaged left side of his abdomen. His eyes widened in fear, spying Chronus's look of sadistic satisfaction as his limited pints of blood spilled from the deep cut across his body and onto his nemesis. Thanks to the gravity bolstering his weight the saiyan dropped with an almighty crash; his head smashed up the floor upon its inevitable impact with the ground to finalise his defeat.

Through the bleary eyed nausea Vegeta tried to ignore the pain, and for a moment he heard Gohan not two paces away cough up a mouthful of blood. Good – he was still alive after all, but for how long he wondered. Chronus had downed them both and with more pain than he'd ever experienced before restricting his ability to move Vegeta could only watch as Chronus's armoured boot by his head shifted its position slightly, turning to him with the intent to curb-stomp his skull into oblivion before suddenly jerking to the right and falling back into a wide combat stance.

"Divine Shackles!"

Vegeta was unsure of what happened next. One moment Chronus's boots had been firmly posed in from of him and the next they'd been hurled off their feet the sound of a cry and an energy blast, both only muffled background noise to his ears. A few moments later a second pair of feet crunched the ground next to him, and after twenty more seconds he was suddenly rolled onto his back, facing up and looking into a blurred source of blinding light. His chest began to tighten as his sight along with the rest of his senses eventually returned to him. Painfully he sat up, stretching out the restricted wound on his chest and looking around for Chronus. The fiend lay struggling some fifty metres away, tied together by golden chains of a heavenly ki.

"Hyperion!" came Gohan's pained reply.

Vegeta turned to his saviour coming in the form of a heavily armoured man of large stature. Blond hair flowed down from his unprotected head, dyed red at its shoulder-length tips from the blood that had no doubt come from the great stab wound thrust through his chest.

"Try not to talk Gohan – I've stopped the bleeding but you won't be able to fight anymore, not in that condition." He said.

"You don't look so good yourself." Vegeta remarked upon noticing the crippling wound piercing the warrior's body. "I'm take it you're Hyperion."

"Your suspicions are correct great saiyan. I cannot hold my body together for much longer, but with my own powers I've managed to keep myself alive and manage your own injuries too – that wound may be serious, but it's no longer life threatening."

Vegeta made a groaning sound of irritated agony as he willed himself back onto his feet. "Good enough." He muttered.

Hyperion smiled to himself and carried on his grand speech in spite of his injuries. "Then what the others told me is true; if I hadn't seen it for my own eyes I wouldn't believe it, but you saiyans really are in a whole other league: You'll continue to fight even like that?"

"Of course!" Vegeta spat, as if offended by the very suggestion of giving up. "This is nothing!"

Hyperion looked off into the distance, smiling vaguely as if he'd seen some glimmer of hope somewhere on the horizon of this nameless world. Whilst this man may have embodied few traits of a hero, Hyperion knew that there was no better he'd ever met, and this Goku character promised to be even more noble. "I should go." He said, struggling to stand. "Gohan, Vegeta. . . Hopefully I'll see you in the next life someday."

Goku's mind now travelled to vast recesses of the universe, scouring the cosmos for the tiny signs of life that he could draw from amidst the teeming vastness of the stars. He focused in on them, drew power and diverted it to the sphere above him now filling the sky despite him still believing it to be far less than adequate. He concentrated on the plants and the animals; the water from rivers and the flame from the thousands of suns in the galaxies, drawing them all towards him until a sudden spike of energy caught his attention close by. In fact it was really close by – so close in fact that it was within his immediate range. Such was his sudden panic that Goku suddenly forced open his eyes to see an armoured man with long blond hair standing before him with a single hand raised and touching the surface of the Spirit Bomb.

He almost lost his hold on the bomb upon his surprise, and his confusion was enhanced further when he saw that the man ignored him despite it being painfully obvious that Goku had noticed his presence.

"Hey! What're you doing?"

Wordlessly answering his question, Hyperion's palm, pressed flatly against the surface of the Spirit Bomb, began to glow as he deconstructed his own body into the same energy that constantly streamed into Goku's attack. He stared back at the saiyan struggling before him.

"I know who you are Goku, and from just one look in your eyes I can see that you truly do deserve the title of the universe's protector." He said at last.

"What?" muttered Goku in disbelief. "What do you mean? Stop before you get yourself killed!" more than anything the saiyan wanted to reach out and push this mysterious stranger away from his attack before he gave up the entirety of his life force, but one simple twitch in the wrong direction and he could lose everything he'd built up so far.

"It's alright – nothing can be done to save me now, just don't waste the energy I have remaining."

After the brief conversation and nonexistent introduction Hyperion smiled and closed his eyes, appearing calmly relaxed despite the systematic deconstruction of his body into raw energy. His hand and arm disintegrated into spiralling pockets of ki with the rest of his torso following shortly afterwards. Soon his entire right side had been converted, but he still smiled even as what remained of him evaporated. Every colour of the spectrum glowed from the warrior's fleeting soul in a blooming display, and with the man's noble sacrifice the Spirit Bomb grew even larger.

Fighting away the brewing lump in his throat Goku suddenly noticed the vast magnitude of energy that surrounded the bomb he'd produced, and he dove into complete concentration in order to seize every last molecule of it. The Spirit Bomb then inflated again like the gushing press of a football pump swelling it up, multiplying its power and boosting him ever closer to his goal of matching Chronus's energy signal.

"How touching. . ." mused that same chilling voice that had haunted Goku's nightmares ever since he'd first heard it. After apparently breaking through whatever spell had restricted him Chronus was back on his feet, gliding ominously towards the orange saiyan with his right hand aglow with untamed ki. "Even until the end my brother was a coward. He attacked whilst my back was turned and sacrificed himself before I had a chance to strike back."

Goku gritted his teeth with a contained rumble upon the Master's berating of the man's noble sacrifice, and finally the cogs turned in his head. The man had been Chronus's brother – the one who Gohan and the others had told them about before. His donation with his own life to the Spirit Bomb had given the attack a much needed boost, though even as its size meant that the ball could be seen as a massive blue spot from orbit, it still wasn't quite ready to challenge the monster standing before him.

Chronus unloaded the small but potent ki sphere in his hand, with the small blast itself burning against the saiyan's chest in a miniature explosion and a puff of smoke. He wouldn't make the same mistakes as before; with the size of the Spirit Bomb now passing for a small moon he had to finish this with quickly – playtime was over. Without hesitation the monster summoned up another of the same sphere in each hand and proceeded to blast away with thousands of the tiny flashes raining down like flaming hail upon Goku's vulnerable body. Explosions like giant bee stings pelted the exposed saiyan, but as long as he held on he knew the universe still stood a chance. He persevered through thousands of the darkened bolts until Chronus mercifully stopped to survey the damage.

He breathed heavily; head lolled downwards as vast measurements of sweat dripped from his hair and body. His chest bled profusely and small chunks of his fur covered skin had been ripped off in the maelstrom as his hands stayed raised high up in the air, shaking now under the pressure as though he held up an entire planet with the strength of his arms alone.

"Impressive. You saiyans just don't die do you?" Chronus started, all the while beginning the charge of his terrifying signature attack. "Well we'll soon put an end to that. . . Darkn-"

The roar of a man possessed suddenly drowned out the Master's speech as a flash of blue came racing over the nearest rise of rocky earth. Chronus snarled and turned his aim to the saiyan gnat that refused to die, though Vegeta was upon him already and interrupting his most powerful attack with a well timed haymaker to the jaw. . .

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Alright folks, if you're ready then read on, but you might want to take this opportunity to go for a break; get some coffee and some sugary confectionary, because shit's about to blow up :D