Here is the penultimate chapter for this arc! Part 1 of a big Finale! Enjoy.

Chapter 34: Dawn of Ashes – Part One

Deep in the Uncharted Regions of the Galaxy

The sanctuary sat in silence. All that could be heard was the rushing of a couple of pairs of footsteps running through the halls towards the throne. Wuggles and Moonstone barged through the door, disregarding their Master's usual orders to not do so, but this was very important.

"Sir! Master Kuyato!" They both shouted in unison. The cloaked figure looked up from his throne.

"What is it?" He spoke in that same deep, scratchy, well-spoken tone. He wasn't happy with being disturbed, but he would be even more annoyed when he heard the news.

"Freeza has been kill, sir," Wuggles informed his Master. Moonstone nodded and stepped up.

"And his army destroyed…" The second troll followed up. Kuyato gripped the arms of his chair and slowly stood.

"How?" He yelled. Wuggles and Moonstone quickly explained everything. How Freeza didn't search for the artefact and went to Earth for revenge. Also, how he spent six months training. Kuyato walked down the steps. Both Wuggles and Moonstone cowered in fear, but their Master walked past them. "I was disobeyed… I need to take a few different steps…"

Wuggles and Moonstone looked to each other, but then Kuyato turned to face them and finished his sentence.

"A few steps to do things myself," He finished. That's when the door opened behind him and in stepped a figure wearing a rather spacey looking armour. It was black with a little bit of red trim. The armour was also covered in a rather shredded cloak. This person also wore a helmet and there were two blades sheathed on his back. It was Yamo Niha.

"I think I can help you with that…" Niha stated, in a metallic/robotic tone, "My Lord."

"It is about time you come to me," Kuyato stated, seeming rather pleased. "Let's revive the Dark Blades."

After their experiences with the Cold Empire, things continued for the team of allies. Guida, Niku and Talia continued on their mission to catch up with Shirken and crew. They had to get that location from them in some way and they wouldn't stop until they did so. In this time, they had a few close calls with Shirken and his team and this led them to a few unknown and unpopulated planets where some fights would happen, but no success.

However, this did give the team a lot more opportunities to get to know one another and become quite good allies. They were finally starting to work together in the hopes of achieving this common goal.

It was only after an encounter with a Saiyan named Noca that their chances started to look a little better. By helping Noca rescue his friend and ally, Vegeta, Talia was able to infiltrate Shirken's ship and manage to take the map that they needed in order to get to Yamo Niha. It was a very successful mission and they were well on their way to doing what they needed. Noca and Vegeta rejected the offer to join their quest and went about their own one. It didn't seem like they would ever see Noca and Vegeta again, but you never know in a universe like this one.

What was important, was getting on with the mission at hand. They blasted off, following the coordinates on the files they took from Shirken, but they wouldn't be heading that way alone. They were being followed… by Shirken himself.

Their ship was far enough behind to go unnoticed, and they didn't need to worry about losing the ship because they knew exactly where it was going. They knew where the map led and just because the file was stolen, it didn't mean they didn't still have another version on the system. This wasn't going to be difficult. They just needed to bide their time.

This didn't make Shirken feel any better though. He was angry. He knew he no longer worked for Yamo Niha, but this felt like one last failure that he would soon have to pay for. If Niha were to come out of this unscathed, which was very likely, then Shirken would be punished for sure. But he couldn't let his fear show, that's why he converted it into anger at himself, but made sure it seemed like he was angry at the rest of the team.

"We should try to warn Niha," Shirken said out loud, he turned to Tufa who was the one at the communication controls and the big man started doing his best to reach out to Niha, but seemed to be getting a little frustrated and this annoyed Shirken. "What is it?!"

"I'm trying to connect to the frequency, but there's nothing," Tufa replied. Shirken stood up.

"Impossible, he said that was the only way to contact him and it would always work…" Shirken stated, walking over to the control panel where Tufa was. He looked at the screen himself and noticed it. "He's gone off the radar… completely."

The rest of the crew looked to Shirken, as if he would have the answers, but he seemed lost. He just stepped back, looked around the room and then at Kuiku.

"Keep after them," He ordered, walking out of the room shortly after and heading to his own quarters. He sat at a table and started running through the planetary systems that he knew Niha associated with. Trying to get some idea on where he would have gone and why. He was always so secretive and never told Shirken why. It always bothered him.

Meanwhile, the little ship with our heroes continued to move on towards the location on that file. Guida, sitting in his chair and looking at the map, began to notice that he didn't recognise some of the names of systems and stars that they were flying past in hyperspace.

"I've never been to this part of the Galaxy before," He mentioned, although he wasn't really speaking to anybody. "Most of this is uncharted territory according to the Patrol."

"And to the Empire," Niku said, joining the topic. "It's amazing. They always said there was nothing out here."

Talia said nothing, but her continued silence didn't go unnoticed. Both of them looked to the teenager and she just glanced up. She went to say something, but sighed and the two of them looked away from her again. Truth was, Talia had known about these parts from her time as Niha's ally, but she too had reasons to worry about this. She had only heard from some of Niha's stories what might be here. She was scared that he might have been telling the truth, at least once.

She knew it would probably benefit the crew if she warned them of what they may face, but she also didn't want to believe those stories. As she moved to say something to them there was a loud beeping coming from the computer and it took them all by surprise, but they knew what it meant.

"We will shortly be coming out of hyperspace at our destination," Airen piped up. Niku and the robot began to tap away at the system and prepared for exiting hyperspace. They all needed to be calm and ready for whatever came their way. There could be anything waiting for their arrival.

The ship rapidly exited hyperspace and was instantly greeted by a mass of ship wreckage. The ship had come out far too quickly and was struck by some big debris. It managed to knock the ship to the side, but luckily the shields were up and they were relatively safe from any real damage. Airen and Niku did have to get on the controls quickly and slow the ship down to avoid any more hits.

They had to perform a couple of evasive manoeuvres to get out of the way of some more debris that floated around, but there certainly was a lot of it. Both Airen and Niku weren't having fun trying to get it through, but they managed and they were in one piece. The shields remained up and the ship was no going through at a steady and safe pace.

Talia stood up from her seat and went to the window to look out at everything as they flew through towards the signal on the map.

"There aren't any planets… or moons, just…" She stopped and turned around to face the others, "Just wreckage and remains."

Guida stood up as well and went to look out with Talia.

"Someone clearly wanted to be left alone," Guida muttered to the girl.

"And I think I found why," Niku mentioned, grabbing the attentions of the other two. They walked over to looked out of the front with Niku and that's when they spotted it. Far from the east of the system's star there was a larger collection of wreckage and it seemed to serve as some sort of barrier ring around some form of structure building into a large rock formation. "That's where we're headed."

As the ship continued onwards it fell silent on-board the ship and that was just representative of how silent it was in this sector. There wasn't the slight hint of life to be found. No small ships, no space creatures had taken up residence and it didn't even seem like any life signs were coming from the main structure. That's when the ship's instruments started to play up a bit and almost everything had shut off, aside from the main flight control and the shields. It was just the scanners and communications systems that had turned off.

They headed towards the structure and came upon what looked like a hangar and they landed down inside. Guida, Niku, and Talia all prepared their weapons, breathing apparatus, and were getting ready to head out of the ship and into the building. Airen would stay behind in case they needed to make a quick getaway or something tried to take their ship.

The trio made their way out and were in the hangar. They looked around, but there wasn't much to see. They looked up to see that parts of the roof were collapsed in and that was the only thing that was letting any light into this hangar. There was rubble and dust everywhere. The trio walked forward. The two men had their rifles at the ready while Talia had one of her swords out at the ready with the other still sheathed on her back.

They finally made it to the first door at the end of the hangar and noticed the control panel was still functioning. Niku hit a button and the door opened. The three of them stepped through and the door closed right away. The hallway was pitch black for a second, but there must have been a sensor because more than half the lights flickered on, showing them parts of the hall. They continued on.

Niku was leading them, Guida walked through the middle, and Talia was at the back. As they all walked on Talia suddenly stopped and shook her head. The others hadn't noticed and continued, but Talia was feeling something strange. She looked to her right and started to basically examine the wall. The other two kept walking, but Talia had full on stopped now. Something was getting to her, but she couldn't put her finger on it.

As she reached a hand out and went to touch the wall it seemed to flip and out came someone with a sword. They swiped forward, hoping to strike Talia, but the girl jumped back, avoiding it. The noise seemed to get Niku's and Guida's attentions and they turned to see Talia in a sword fight. Suddenly, lots of different parts of the walls opened up and more Dark Blades revealed themselves. Niku and Guida both started to open fire, but had to make sure they didn't get Talia.

The girl knocked the first fighter's sword up and then jabbed them through the gut. As Talia pulled the sword out and turned, they had dropped to the ground and a couple of them started walking towards her. She charged forward, finding some of her energy, jabbed one of them through the chest and then turned to slice down on the other. They protected themselves by holding their sword horizontally above them and started to push back, but Talia, using her free hand, managed to get her other sword unsheathed and hit that Dark Blade in the side. He loosened his grip on his defence and Talia embedded the other sword in their shoulder.

Talia twisted around and charged forward into more of the other Dark Blades and was swinging her swords around, slashing and slicing at all of them. Meanwhile, Guida and Niku were still gunning down a few of them. It was surprising, they all seemed to pop out of nowhere, but that didn't mean they were about to stop and start asking questions, they were going to try and kill them all.

The two of them managed to get to the end of the hall and were at the door. Niku hit the controls again and they moved through into the next room. They now had the cover of the walls and poked around to fire down the hall as Talia moved on through.

"We need to clear a path for Talia," Guida told his ally. Niku nodded and they both started to fire at the Dark Blades that were around Talia. She noticed they were trying to help her and started to move up towards them. She was still attacking, but also had to get to her allies so they could move on with the rest of this mission. She did eventually manage to get to them and ran around into cover to regain some of her strength and energy. She was a little tired out.

"You guys need to go on," Talia said, breathing a little heavily. She straightened up and wiped a bit of blood off of her face. She started to notice some damage, but she basically brushed it off and turned to her allies again. "I mean it, I can handle all of these."

Guida and Niku turned around the corner again and continued to fire on the Dark Blades and also getting an idea on how many there were that Talia was planning to take on her own. It was a big hallway… so about 20 of them were left. They came back into the room and stared at Talia.

"What? I can do it," She said, annoyed at them for judging her. "Go and find Niha."

They nod in agreement and rush off through the next few rooms. Talia took a couple more breaths and turned around into the doorway. She has both her swords at the ready by her sides and her aura began to flare up. That white energy was bright and caused all the Dark Blades warriors to stop moving for a second. Talia's hair began to flare around her again and her eyes went white. There were also some red sparks around her body and even her blades started to shine a little.

Some of the Dark Blades backed off, but others stood strong. Talia's aura calmed down a little and her hair had calmed down. Her eyes returned to normal and she smirked, charging forward and beginning to attack all the Dark Blades. She did get hit a couple of times, but that wasn't going to stop her.

Guida and Niku made it to the large throne room and saw the stairs leading to the chair. It was hidden by shadows and it looked as if someone was sitting there. Guida and Niku stepped forward, guns aimed up and they were focussed. Neither of them said anything and they expected whoever it was in that seat to make some sort of move. They didn't. Guida couldn't take the waiting anymore and fired a single shot. It struck the figure in the head and then they started to roll down the stairs, coming to a stop at the bottom.

The two of them looked to each other and moved forward. Guida had his weapon aimed on the body as he moved forward, while Niku looked around the room and kept an eye out in case anyone was hiding. He got a chance to see some of the statues that were around the room and noticed they were all cloaked. Maybe they were Dark Blade related.

Guida got to the body and looked down on it, but instantly yelled out loud in annoyance. He kicked the body and dropped to his knees, punching the ground. Niku rushed over to see what was wrong and instantly got his answer. He stopped and sighed in annoyance.

"It's not him…" Niku muttered, turning away and walking up the stairs. He had his gun ready and saw nothing in the seat. He turned back to see Guida get to his feet.

"Talia said this would lead us to Niha. She said he would be here," Guida started to walk to the door. Niku rushed down the steps.

"Wait, no," Niku got in front of Guida. "How was she meant to know for sure where this would take us. Maybe he was here, but he could have moved on."

"I can't follow maybes," Guida told his ally, brushing past him, gun ready.

"She wouldn't have done this on purpose, Guida," Niku said, assuring his friend. Guida stopped. "You know that."

Guida lowered his weapon and turned around, nodding to Niku. Soon after, Talia rushed in seeing that Guida and Niku were just standing there. She sheathed her swords and approached them.

"What's going on? Where is he?" Talia asked, showing that she was just as surprised as they were that he wasn't there. Guida didn't look at Talia, still pretty angry with everything. Niku approached her.

"Is there anything else you know? Anything about this place maybe?" Niku asked, hoping for something. Talia shook her head and sighed.

"I thought we had him…" She said, clearly disappointed. Niku placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Maybe we can see what those soldiers know?" Niku suggested, pointing towards the hallway. Talia looked down the hall and then at the blood on her and up at Niku.

"I was pretty damn thorough," She said, smirking a little. "But we can check."

All three of them head to the hall and notice a Dark Blade trying to drag himself away to safety. Niku walked forward and pulled the Dark Blade back and threw him against a wall. He wasn't able to stand because of his injuries. He was clearly in a lot of pain and lucky to still be alive. Guida comes over and grabs the Dark Blade, punching him in the face.

"Tell us where Niha is!" Guida yelled at the Dark Blade, punching him again. He just smiled and laughed, not saying anything. Guida was clearly a bit annoyed by that and punched him again. "Tell me!"

The Dark Blade still didn't say anything. Niku and Talia stayed behind Guida to make sure he didn't do anything to go too far. Guida was getting more and more annoyed with this Dark Blade's laughter though and started to beat him some more. Finally, Talia got involved and pushed Guida off of him. Guida wasn't happy about that, but neither was Talia.

"You can't just beat him and hope for an answer, let me try," Talia said, turning to the Dark Blade and taking out one of her swords and showing it to him. "You know what this is?"

The man didn't say anything for a second and glanced down on the sword quickly, but had to look again when he noticed something that took him by surprise. This girl had just managed to bring him and his allies down by using this sword and he hadn't noticed it before. Talia noticed the surprise in his eyes and knew she was making progress.

"A… blessed blade…" he mumbled, showing some fear at not only seeing the blade, but also that Talia was holding it by the handle with no problems. "Only a true Dark Blade can carry such a weapon."

"Well, what does that make me then?" Talia questioned. The man was trembling and Talia knew she had him now. "You saw that I am capable with this sword, so tell me where Niha is."

"Namek…" The man finally said, not confident in himself any longer. Talia shook her head and looked up to her allies, Guida shrugged his shoulders.

"Never heard of it," Talia said.

"I have," Niku responded. Guida and Talia turned to look at Niku who was looking right at the Dark Blade. "And I think I know why he's going there."

"I'm sure we don't have to worry about any Namekians, right?" Guida questioned, clearly not knowing much about them or why anyone would go to their planet.

"It's not the Namekians we need to worry about, it's the Dragon Balls," Niku told them. They still stared blankly. "Sorbet wanted them once… said they could help us bring Lord Freeza back."

Niku started to move off, down the hall back to where the ship was. Talia and Guida followed and they were all about to leave.

"Wait…"

The three of them turned around to see the Dark Blade attempting to stand.

"It's not going to be safe… Niha won't be alone," The Dark Blade started to explain. He opened his mouth to say more, but was suddenly shot in the head and fell to the ground, dead. The trio instantly rushed to the throne room and took cover behind the walls as more blasts came their way. They waited until the attack died down and poked their heads around to see Shirken and his team standing there.

"Damn them!" Guida yelled, getting his rifle ready. Niku also prepared his gun, they would need to fight back. Both of them got to firing their weapons back at Shirken and his crew. Talia tried to find an exit out of that room, but it soon dawned on them that there was only one way in and out of that throne room. She returned the other two and let them know they needed to push through somehow.

"If we could distract them maybe we can push through," Talia suggested as she stepped away and began trying to channel her energy again. It was good that she had been training in the time she had worked with this crew and after meeting Noca she knew that meditation would help in some way. Talia closed her eyes and her aura returned, along with the red sparks. She walked into the hall and took out her swords. Guida and Niku go to stop her until they realise she is deflecting their blaster bolts with her swords.

She doesn't manage to get close enough to attack with her swords though, due to the mass weapon intensity coming at her. She had to put all her focus into defending. Well, almost all her defence. Part of her attention was going to focussing some more of her energy. She managed to get it in front of her to serve as a defensive barrier and then she slammed her swords together in an x-shape in front of her. That caused a mini-explosion in the hallway that filled it with smoke, impairing vision.

Talia rushes through as they are all disoriented and the other two take the initiative and head forward as well. Niku manages to get through, bumping into Shirken on the way. This got Shirken's attention and he figured out what was going. He looked back up the hall and saw Guida coming through. He stepped out and managed to tackle Guida, stopping him from getting through.

The smoke started to clear to reveal that Guida and Shirken were standing in front of one other, ready to fight.

"Get after the others," Shirken ordered his men. They all rushed off, leaving the brothers together. Both of them threw their guns to the ground and were ready to have a proper fight. Guida clenched his fists and moved into a stance. Shirken did the same and made the first move. He moved forward, aiming for Guida's head, but the former patrolman held an arm up to defend and aimed his own punch forward.

Shirken managed to defend against that one relatively easily and it seemed to go around in that circle for a few seconds before Guida dropped back and went low, kicking out at Shirken's legs. Guida got on top of Shirken and went to punch him in the face, but the traitorous brother used his knee to push Guida back and stood up, kicking him in the gut and knocking him back into the wall. Guida struck the wall and gripped his gut, glaring at his brother.

"Don't go after Niha," Shirken ordered, "It won't end well for anyone."

"I need to, don't you understand?" Guida questioned, yelling and charging for his brother, pushing him into the wall and started to punch him in the gut a few times. Shirken managed to get his hands in there and pushed Guida back, but now they were in a grappling match. "I need to get closure!"

"What's closure going to do? Your family are already dead," Shirken said, looking his brother in the eyes, but this was obviously the wrong thing to say as Guida used his head to take his brother by surprise and knock him back. Shirken grunted and backed away. "You won't survive this…"

"Why do you care?" Guida asked, moving towards his brother again. Shirken straightens up, sighs, and looks into his brother's eyes again.

"Because we're family," Shirken said, in a calm tone. Guida looked down for a second and took a deep breath, looking back up at his brother.

"Not anymore," Guida rushes forwards and punches Shirken in the head, knocking him back, and their fight continues.

While that fight was going on, Talia and Niku had made it back to the ship, but Niku stopped at the ramp and turned around.

"You get the ship ready to take off," Niku commanded, looking over his shoulder at Talia. "I'll hold these guys off until Guida can get back."

Talia nodded and rushed off into the ship. In her head, there was no way she would let Niku have all the fun of this fight, she would just tell Airen to prepare the ship. Niku was confident with his own abilities though. He looked around the main loading bay of the ship and grabbed two weapons he had gathered on missions. A large axe, and a large hammer. He was ready for this. The rifle wasn't needed right now.

Niku walked down the ramp as Shirken's crew arrived. Niku swung both weapons around and then rushed in, attempting to smack them back with the hammer, but mainly using the axe for defence. He didn't intend to kill them unless absolutely necessary. The three of them surrounded Niku and tried to attack at the same time, but Niku would swing his hammer around and managed to hit them a couple of times and the axe served its purpose of keeping them at bay.

Talia rushed through to the control room and saw Airen sitting there waiting, as usual.

"Get this ship ready to leave when we say so!" Talia practically yelled at the robot before turning around and darting out of the control room. She wanted to get back to helping Niku. Airen turned in his chair, noticing that Talia wasn't there, sort of shrugged his shoulders and then turned back to the control panel and got the ship's instruments ready.

She sprinted back to the loading bay and saw Niku struggling to keep all three of them back. She grabbed her small pistol and took aim, not knowing which one of the three to open fire upon. The quick one. That's what she told herself upon seeing the heavy weapons that Niku was using and remembering just how agile she was. She fired on Kuiku and this grabbed his attention.

The serpent-like alien turned around and charged for Talia. She threw the pistol to the side and took her swords out once more. Kuiku certainly stopped upon seeing this, but he wasn't planning to turn and run, he would stand his ground and try to fight back, somehow. That's when Talia smirked, dropped her swords and charged into Kuiku. She kicked him in the ribs and then punched him up in the chin. She then jumped up and performed a spinning kick, knocking him back into the ground.

Kuiku got back to his feet and darted around, ending up behind Talia and kicked her in the back. Talia jolted forward, but then saw Kuiku's tail coming from her face. She ducked and turned around, managing to channel some energy and blast it into Kuiku's chest. It wasn't a lot and only pushed him back a little bit. She would need a lot more to stop him.

Back with Guida and Shirken, it was certainly the former that had the most to say in terms of their fight. Shirken was very much on the defensive as Guida bombarded him. Guida knocked Shirken all the way towards the throne room once again and they were fighting through the middle of the room. Shirken really didn't seem to be in the fight, but coming up against his brother, the former patrolman, was always going to be a challenge.

Guida punched his brother in the chest and Shirken fell down at the foot of the staircase that led towards the throne. Guida moved towards Shirken as the weaker of the two tried his best to get up, but also avoid being hit again.

"Please, Guida… we don't have to fight," Shirken was pleading. He clearly didn't want this fight, but Guida didn't care right now. "Spare me…"

"Like you spared my family? No… your own family!" Guida yelled, grabbing his brother by the throat and punching him in the centre of the face. He then lifted Shirken up and turned to face the rest of the room and after he channelled some of his energy, he punched Shirken in the chest, sending him flying over to the other side of the room. Shirken crashed into the wall and fell into a heap, certainly injured.

Shirken tried to get back up, but Guida got over there quick and punched him down into the ground again. He them stamped on his head and kicked him in the face, breaking his nose. There was a lot of blood. Guida turned around, wanting to finally leave it there. Shirken wasn't fighting back… but then he heard something metal and movement.

Guida turned around to see Shirken holding a metal pipe and moving towards him. Guida grabbed the pipe as Shirken swung it towards him, weakly, and then Guida head-butted his brother back to the ground. Shirken fell to his knees and now Guida had the pipe. Without thinking he swung it and smashed his brother around the head, causing him to sprawl out on the ground and squirm in pain.

"Niha is going to die," Guida said, watching his brother try to crawl away. Guida walked with his brother, pipe still in hand and finding the right moment he took it and planted it straight through his brother's shoulder. Shirken let out a scream of pain as the pipe went straight through his body and because of the power it even went into the ground. Shirken couldn't move now. "You two will be seeing each other very soon."

Guida took one last look at his brother and turned away. He rushed back through the hall towards the hangar and saw his allies struggling with the others. He joined in briefly and they managed to knock the three of them away and board their ship, ordering Airen to take off quickly and blast away. For a second, Shirken's allies were fumbling about until one of them decided to throw a tracker on their ship as it blasted out of the hangar, knocking them off of their feet.

It took the three of them a moment before realising that Shirken wasn't around. They rushed to the throne room and saw him on the ground, lots of blood, and a pipe in his body. They removed the pipe and rushed him back to their own ship to get him healed up.

Meanwhile, on-board the ship with our heroes… they were plotting their course for Planet Namek. New Namek to be specific.

So there you have it, part 1 over! I hope you enjoyed it and I hope you're looking forward to the final chapter of this arc. To be perfectly honest, I planned this two parter long before I had a full idea for the arc. I just wanted to give some more time for people to get to know these characters and I had some stories that I wanted to tell that just wouldn't have fit into Noca's character arc.

I also got the name for this finale from a DragonForce song (Ashes of the Dawn).

Anyway, sorry for the delay, and if you want to say something or ask something leave a review or send me a PM. Thanks!

Next Time... Chapter 35: Dawn of Ashes - Part Two