Hi there!

I've worked really hard to at least get this chapter up and runing before my work period starts (that's in 10 hours btw :P ), so that there is less pressure on the story.

I hope you'll enjoy!

Chapter 20: Clash of Titans

He had hit the ground with a bang, leaving a huge imprint as the stone surface crumbled around him. He quickly stood up and rubbed his cheek to soothe the sore. 'That was a lucky shot, he won't get that chance again,' Gohan thought to himself as he jumped back into the air and counterattacked with a Masenko. It swiped its target off from his feet, even as Vegeta tried to defend himself against it, and was sent several feet into the air.

An hour ago, when Gohan arrived at Capsule Corp., the Saiyan Prince had been waiting for him. He seemed impressed and even smiled as the half-Saiyan intimidatingly raised his Ki. Then his attention turned to Bulma, who had come to see what was going on. Bulma froze when she saw Gohan, knowing full well what was about to happen. Vegeta nodded to her in recognition and asked her to order a buffet - big enough for two hungry Saiyans - and that it should be ready in a few hours. This caught Gohan off guard: shouldn't this be a battle to the end? It almost sounded like he expected them both to return, contrary to what the young half-Saiyan was expecting. Was Piccolo right all along? Or was Vegeta talking big and did he order the buffet for him and Trunks to celebrate his victory? Whatever it was, it wasn't stopping Gohan from achieving his goal of getting what he wanted out of life.

Vegeta got up and smirked, "Well, I guess the warm-up is over. Let's get down to business."

Gohan raised an eyebrow, how much did he hold back? Not that it mattered, he too had his own resources to tap into. Vegeta began to power up, his already blond hair swaying violently on the waves of energy radiating from his body. As he let out a loud cry, Gohan stood transfixed. This can't be, right? He knew the Prince had trained almost, if not, every day, but he hadn't expected him to have reached that stadium. Wouldn't he have noticed? Or was he so distracted by life that he just didn't sense the change in Ki?

The cry died down and in front of him stood Vegeta, who had ascended his regular Super Saiyan level. Gohan was stunned, he had never seen anybody do it but himself, and knowing the power output that comes with it, be it strength, speed and energy, he swallowed. Guess he really did underestimate this fight.

"Unlike you, I trained for years to reach this level. I was never as gifted as you. I always had to eat dust before I was allowed progression, and to be honest, it pisses me off. But I'm a lot stronger than when you fought Cell, so be warned.

Gohan frowned deeply. Okay, so what if Vegeta has reached Super Saiyan two now? He had much more experience with such power. Even though he hadn't trained that much, he made sure he'd maintained access to that form because he took pride in it. But at the same time he feared it, as he had drowned in power more than once while using it. But with Piccolo's training he had overcome that issue and with ease, he too turned Super Saiyan two.

"So you haven't forgotten how to use it," said Vegeta, mocking, but also pleased.

Gohan glared at him, "Don't get too cocky. I also trained hard last month, and while it doesn't count for seven years of training, I've always been gifted with making rapid progress, exceeding expectations and I have a much higher potential than you."

"So who's the cocky one here? You think you can beat me, is that it?" Vegeta gave a mocking laugh.

"I don't really have a choice, do I?" Gohan took a stance to prepare for the fight to continue, "Time will tell, at least I'll die trying."

Gohan charged at Vegeta with lightning speed, punching him into the air and chased after him to knock him back to the ground with a hand chop. But Vegeta turned, grabbed his hand with both of his, and threw him over his head with tremendous force back to where he came from. Before Gohan would hit the ground, he teleported back behind Vegeta and delivered a powerful kick to his opponent's ribs.

Again Vegeta grabbed Gohan's limb, which took the younger one by surprise. Vegeta smirked, pretending to form a gun with his hand and aimed it at Gohan from under his arm. "Pew-Pew," the Prince said softly, though in a mocking fashion, firing two small red energy bolts from his pointed index finger. However, once Gohan read his intentions, he threw his body back to avoid collision, and immediately threw his other leg in the air, knocking Vegeta over.

Now free of his grasp, Gohan angrily elbowed Vegeta farther into the air and hook-kicked him in his stomach right after it. The next barrages of kicks and punches, however, were quickly avoided by the skilled full-blooded Saiyan, and when Gohan embedded a roundhouse kick, he was blown away by a large Ki-blast, which slammed him into one of the mountains.

They had been fighting in the same area where Gohan had been training for the past couple of weeks. This gave him an advantage as he knew this place by hearth, but that detracted from his opponent's experience. Gohan knew he was in trouble: Vegeta was much stronger than he anticipated and his techniques were refined, as Gohan's was still rough around the edges, leaving vulnerable openings for Vegeta to use to his advantage.

Changing strategies, Gohan decided to fight defensively, a tactic he felt most comfortable with. He was never fond of fighting, so normally he just did what he had to do, which basically was defend himself, analyze the fight, and when the opportunity presented itself, he struck a powerful blow to end it all.

This new tactic worked wonders, causing him less damage from Vegeta's attacks and as the Prince picked up the pace, Gohan had speed on his side. This infuriated Vegeta, causing him to go out even more, draining his energy in the process. When the opportunity arose, Gohan formed a strong Ki-ball in his hand and slammed Vegeta in the jaw with it like one of the upper cuts he'd learned from Sharpener. The Ki sphere exploded in the face and Vegeta fell to the ground, while Gohan landed in front of him.

Vegeta got up, coughed into his hand from the smoke that had formed, and grinned at the boy. "That was a nasty move you made there," Vegeta smirked, impressed that the ever-good boy was playing such mean games. Gohan said nothing and kept staring daggers at him. He wasn't proud of it, but at least he managed to do some serious damage for once. "Let's see what else you have in store," the Prince grinned and began to discharge multiple medium-sized ki-balls at Gohan at a rapid pace.

In defense, the demi-Saiyan protected himself with an Energy Barrier, putting enough energy into it to turn it into a golden energy sphere in front of him, which he then fired as an energy wave. Vegeta jumped out of the way, but Gohan quickly changed the course of the blast, hitting his opponent nonetheless.

After a quick recovery, Vegeta teleported behind Gohan and held him in a Kansetsu waza. Gohan tried to free himself, but Vegeta's joint lock was too strong. "What's the matter boy, I know you can do better than this. Or should I remind you what's at stake?" Vegeta said ominously.

Was Vegeta toying with him? If he had wanted to kill him, he would have fought on a different level. He even had his opportunities, but didn't take them. Gohan knew that Vegeta enjoyed fighting, but he also knew that he took pride in winning, and so if there was a chance to finish him off if he wanted to, he would take it regardless. But since Vegeta didn't, Gohan assumed he had misread the intentions of the fight, and so held back as this might be a 'friendly' spar after all. But now he wasn't sure of that either, because Vegeta again pointed out the consequences.

"Your mate has a pretty high power level for a human," Vegeta began. Chills ran down Gohan's spine. No, not this again! He really thought - or at least hoped - that this scenario wouldn't happen in the end. Vegeta noticed his body tensing up and smirked, "It's not rocket science to find her whereabouts, so I'll make sure to pay her a visit after this fight is over."

Gohan tensed up even more, "Leave her out of this, you have a problem with me and not her," panic set in his heart: he wasn't able to win this battle, so how was he supposed to protect her? Perhaps he could talk him out of this and continued in a broken voice, "She's not even my mate!"

"Then why do you even mind then?"

Alright, scratch that. He figured that Vegeta wouldn't change his mind anyway, so there's no point in talking. All he can do is to stop him permanently, or at least deal enough damage to prevent him from going to Satan City.

"But I'll humor you, you can choose how it would be done," Vegeta kept pushing his buttons.

Gohan gritted his teeth and became even more tense, this time out of anger, "I said leave her out of this!"

"That choice is yours," Vegeta pushed his buttons even more, "Too bad though, she had such a pretty face."

"SHUT UP!" Gohan screamed with anger, then flew into the air at the fastest speeds. Vegeta tried to release him, but Gohan made sure he couldn't. After reaching sufficient height, Gohan turned and flew even faster to the ground, increasing his Ki, and turning his back to the surface that was soon to be hit. With a loud bang, both Z-fighters crashed to the ground. The impact was massive and rocked the earth so much that the shockwave could be felt all the way across West City.

They both jumped out of the crater and landed on either side. Each had substantial damage, one bleeding from the shoulder, the other from the leg.

"I see you still have your Saiyan soul, good, now give me all you have!" Vegeta said enthusiastically, noticing that the half-Saiyan had tapped into his hidden energy, only to be caught aback to see that Gohan's whole attitude had changed. His eyes were blank, ice cold and full of hatred, his whole body language screamed that he was about to kill someone. Vegeta had seen his behavior once before and he also knew that his opponent at the time couldn't tell the tale. Knowing he had asked for this, he smirked, raised his Ki once more and repositioned himself into a fighting stance; Let's bring it on.

Again, both fighters clashed: fists, kicks, Ki attacks and even headbutts were used, seriously injuring one another. Any impact with the ground, the earth would shake violently. Dark clouds appeared above them as the atmosphere began to react to their energy fields, causing thunder around them. But even though Gohan put up a lot of resistance, Vegeta managed to dominate the fight.

After he had enough of the battle and knowing he wouldn't be able to hold out much longer, Gohan teleported himself to a spot further from his opponent, holding both hands out in front of him - "KA-" - He then teleported behind Vegeta as a small blue energy ball appeared between his hands and placed them to his right hip - "ME-" - Again he teleported, this time underneath the full-blooded Saiyan as the ball of radiant energy grew larger - "HA-" - He disappeared again and reappeared to Vegeta's left - "ME-" - Seeing a pattern, Vegeta smirked and turned his attention to his right side as Gohan disappeared for the last time, expecting him to reappear there, but he didn't - "HAAAA!"

Gohan had reappeared at the first spot where he initiated the attack, knowing that Vegeta wouldn't expect the move. He had poured all his frustration, hatred, pain and suffering into this attack, intending to end it once and for all. But when he was about to shout the last syllable, Piccolo's advisory words came to his mind: 'Let all your frustration from the past few weeks out, but when you do, do it with awareness so you won't regret the aftermath,' snapping him out of his wrath.

Taken by surprise, Vegeta could only watch as a blinding beam of pure energy approached him at a rapid pace, his eyes widened in shock. As a last resort, he raised his arms in front of his head to protect himself from the impact, though he knew it would be in vain, and closed his eyes.

But the impact never came.

Vegeta opened his eyes again to see that the Kamehameha had been redirected upward, causing a bright column of light dominating the dark sky. It exploded when its creator threw another blast into its heart to detonate his previous attack, sending a shockwave through the air, knocking both Saiyans off their feet.

The Kamehameha had drained almost all the energy from his body and when he got up, Gohan was back in base form. Hoping that Vegeta didn't see it, he turned back Super Saiyan two, albeit with difficulty. Gohan couldn't hold this form much longer and he reckoned he probably had one attack left.

Vegeta too stood up, "Wrong decision!" he shouted, though inwardly grateful that Gohan had spared him. The Saiyan Prince flew over to Gohan, oblivious to his lack of energy, and placed both hands on Gohan's chest while smirking, intending to blast him point blank. However, Gohan grabbed both of Vegeta's hands with his as Vegeta charged his attack, interlocking their fingers and making a powerful Ki-attack of his own. Unable to abort his attack, Vegeta could only watch as both Ki-attacks exploded against one another.

A loud bang filled the area and dust filled the air. Gohan had blasted off not far from the explosion when a rock painfully blocked his fall. He found himself lying on his back under some small rubble. He had returned to his base form, but this time he didn't try to get up. This fight was over. He couldn't go any further. He had given everything he had left in his last attack, hoping it would be enough to dominate Vegeta. He'd seen that attack of Vegeta before where he used to completely obliterate his enemy, and thought his own actions would at least take the Prince with him to the afterlife. But since he was still here - though not understanding why - he feared it wasn't enough.

After the sound of the explosion faded, the area was filled with silence. Gohan welcomed it, but also knew it was temporary, expecting it to be soon disturbed by Vegeta's next move. But as seconds became minutes, he began to wonder where the Saiyan Prince was. Then the silence was broken by a voice not that far from him.

"How do you feel? Besides sore, that is."

It was Vegeta's voice and it was surprisingly friendly. Gohan didn't know what it meant, but he decided there was no point in lying. After some thought, he answered, "Alive, to be honest."

"Good," Vegeta replied.

After a moment of silence, the prince continued, "You have finally reached the point where you can choose your path without being influenced by external factors." Gohan was surprised by the sudden change in recent events, and he could only patiently listen to what Vegeta had to say. "If you had chosen your path a month ago, you would certainly have chosen the easy way out, for it would have seemed unattainable to restore your old self. But now that you've recuperated that warrior in you, both paths you're struggling with are at your grasp, so you can now choose freely without regrets."

Another silence fell, giving Gohan time to digest Vegeta's words.

"Have you set your path?" Vegeta finally asked.

"Yes," Gohan answered truthfully. He'd made a decision long before, but now he knew he'd made the right one. Relief fell over him: So this was all to push him back into training, wasn't it? He felt a bit betrayed, not only by Vegeta, but especially by himself. How could he be so naive?

"My father was always hard on me," Vegeta started, "Constantly pushing me beyond my limits, threatening that if I didn't succeed something awful would come my way. I was used to it because it was the Saiyan way to train elite warriors, but sometimes it was tough to hear such things from your own father. Then again, I knew it served a greater purpose, and it made me the man I'm today."

Gohan remained silent. Why did Vegeta say this? Was it because he wanted to explain why he had treated Gohan the way he did? Hit him, berate him, and threaten him, just to force him into training? Serving a greater purpose? Teaching him the 'Saiyan' way? But then another realization dawned on him, a much softer and heartwarming one: has Vegeta really tried - in his own botched way - to be a father figure to him?

"I didn't mean what I said to you that day" Vegeta continued, "Your father was proud of you, and still will be, whatever your path may be. And for the record, you don't disgust me and I helped you because I wanted to. I only said those things to push your buttons, but I may have overreacted, and I apologize for that." Vegeta then sighed. "I hate how this planet makes me soft," he muttered more to himself than to Gohan.

Gohan chuckled at the comment, feeling all the stress of the past few weeks drift away. He was so relieved. Piccolo was right all along. He should have listened more to his wisdom and less to his own made-up reality. What a fool he was.

"I'm impressed by how far you've come in such a short time. I'm looking forward to the future, if you decide to continue training, that is."

"You know, there's a tournament coming up next month, if you want we could have a rematch there?" Gohan suggested, "Then we both have a month to train, so it might be fun to see who is the strongest in the end."

"Yeah, sounds good to me," Vegeta grinned, "How about we go home, I'm looking forward to the buffet."

"I rather have a Sensu to be honest," Gohan said reluctantly and looked to his left hand, "I really hope it will generate limbs, I lost two of my fingers on that last attack."

"Yeah, that one was really reckless of you. You could have killed us both if I was fully powered up," Vegeta answered.

That was kinda the whole intention of that move anyway, Gohan thought to himself, but chose to remain silent.

"But don't worry," Vegeta continued, "I ended up holding them after the explosion, so I think you will be fine."

Gohan felt relieved and for the first time after the explosion, he tried to move his body. He did feel he had a number of broken bones, some flesh wounds, and a punctured lung, but he managed to get up using his remaining Ki for support. "We still have some ground to cover, so let's hurry before one of us collapses before we reach the Senzu beans." He heard some movement behind a wall of rocks and Vegeta appeared after a few minutes. Gohan grinned, "You look awful."

"Look who's talking," Vegeta replied, scowling his eyes. "I'm not the one who's missing body parts," he continued accusingly and threw Gohan's fingers at him.

"He! Be careful with them!" Gohan said in shock, trying to catch his fingers in time, afraid he wouldn't find them if they fell to the ground among the rubble. He sighed in relief when he had managed to secure his severed limbs.

"By the way, this conversation never happened," Vegeta warned him, fearing it would damage his reputation.

"The secret is safe with me," Gohan replied, but with a grin on his face, honored to have witnessed Vegeta's soft side for once. He flew up carefully, followed by Vegeta.

"When are you going to tell her?" the Prince asked.

"Tell who what?"

"Don't play dumb with me," Vegeta warned, "That girl, the girl you were prepared to die for. When are you going to tell her you like her?"

Gohan blushed profusely, not expecting to get such a personal question from Vegeta. He swallowed and took a deep breath to calm down. He paused for a moment to think about it. Vegeta was right, he should tell her at some point, but then again, he'd rather fight Vegeta a second time than be rejected. But would she? He knew she liked him, or at least she was physically attracted to him according to the pheromones she produced when she was close to him. "I don't know," he began hesitantly, "This weekend I guess."

"You should, she is a fine mate," Vegeta said resolutely.

After this talk, the wounded duo remained silent during their flight to Capsule Corps. and after a short while they landed on the tiled yard. Bulma immediately ran to them with a mixture of relief, concern and disgust in her eyes. "So, you guys are finally done?" she said in a harsh tone, trying to pretend she didn't care. She gave them both a quick glance and her face turned back in concern, "I'll get the Senzu beans, you really did some damage to one another. I'll be right back." As she walked away, she mumbled something about Saiyans and how irresponsible they were, unaware that the two she was talking about could still hear her.

Gohan let out a laugh as he stumbled to the table and casually threw his severed fingers on it, but as he wanted to sit in the accompanying chair, the sound of broken pottery distracted him. He looked across the table to see who had dropped a cup of tea.

His heart dropped when his onyx eyes met two gorgeous but horrified light-blue opal ones.

At Anonymously96: 100 points for guessing the out-come of this chapter btw. Was it that obvious?