Hi! I'm back again! And now I've made my decision.

But first, for the Reviewer Responses:

Reda: [Hands Reda a block of Cheese] ^.^ Now Vee, what did I tell you about overconfidence? It's okay if you go put yourself in a life or death situation, but fighting Alex is just WAY TOO MUCH! (She tends to leave people quivering on the brink of death, healing them, and then beating them to a quivering pulp again. [Shivers] And she's especially bad when she's in a bad mood...) Alex: Yep, I won't kill anyone, but I WILL make them wish I had. ^.^ Alex Ultra: Dude, if I were you, I wouldn't challenge her. You can challenge Alexander tho! He'll just chop your head off! Nice and quick-like. (I think he's taken a liking to swords...) Alexander: [Snickers] Now get on with it already! Author boy! Alex: Hey, that's my line... Alexander: I know! ^.^

Dragon Fire: YAY!! You're back! [Apologetic stare] Don't be angry with me?! Please?! Oh, and Alex wants you to know that it's not her fault. And I'll second that. When it gets that bad, she suddenly yells at me to 'GET OFF YOUR LAZY BUTT AND WRITE THE NEXT CHAPTER!!! I WANNA SEE WHAT YOU WRITE FOR IT!!!!!!!' O.o Hehe, like I said, I'm sorry. But I have a question. Is Chaos like a cat-person? You know, with the ears and stuff? 'Cause you called her a house-cat (and I'm just generally a curious person... ^.^).

Well, that's all of em!

Here's some reasons why my fictions tend to go slowly.

School (Do I need to explain it?)

Time (Perfection takes time. [Gets whacked by Alex] Alex: Don't let your ego get big! Alex Ultra: [Rubs bump on back of head])

Volume (I have 11 fiction pieces, and more coming. Seven are on FanFiction.net, and four more are on FictionPress.com. And I have people yelling at me to update on both sites, and several stories. I feel so loved! ^_^')

My CD Player (I need it to write, and I just now found the darn thing! AND my headphones are broke! I need to get 'em replaced, but I just don't have the money!)

My Parents (They think I need to do something constructive with my time, I say this is constructive, but they just don't care. As long as I'm not making money off of it, to them (Well, my dad anyway) it's just a complete waste of time. He thinks I should be working on cars instead. (Bleah! I can't stand working on cars! But he makes me help him anyway! And just about anything else he can think of...))

The Computer (It's a freakin' piece of Gateway junk. We still need a Dell. And the desk is falling apart. My dad recently sat on the chair while the arm was hanging on the keyboard deck; basically, he pulled the whole darn thing down.)

Well, I could probably complain about a hundred more things. But those are about all the ones that really matter. ^_^' Sorry, I just needed to get that out.

Hey! Have I mentioned that I got my first flame? Ya! Someone named SuperBoi_Cool flamed my Inuyasha fic! ^.^ And as it turns out, that's all he even does! Which solidifies my view that flames are useless and pointless!

Well, enough celebrating. I'll bet you're yelling at me to get on with it already. Well, here it is.

Chapter 5-5

~~~~~~*** ULTRA ***~~~~~~

"Okay, let's get on with this." Alex flew into the portal, and Alexander watched her go.

~ Alexander ~

Everything was fine for a while, then, like a pair of scissors, something snapped. He couldn't hear her thoughts anymore! 'What happened!? What's going on?'

A bunch of high-pitched squeals suddenly erupted in his head. "AH!!!" Clutching his skull he tried to weather them, but he felt like his head was being ripped apart!

Suddenly, Merlin's voice drowned it out. "Alexander! Calm down! This is merely an effect of being on so strikingly different time rates. Just go through, and it should go away..." Taking a deep breath, Alexander took his advice, and went through.

~ Alex ~

{Oh, god. I hope this works!}

{Alexander?}

{Huh?}

{Oh! Good! I thought I'd lost you! I've been trying to reach you!}

{REACH ME HOW? All I heard was a bunch of loud annoying squeaks!}

{Squeaks?}

Alexander then sent a sound to Alex that 'sounded' remarkably like the sounds he had heard only moments before. {Like that...}

{Ow! Well, I'll bet it was 'cause I was going faster than you were.}

Alexander blinked, and Alex could tell he was thinking something, and she was pretty sure she was thinking the same thing. {Um, I didn't think of that. How come?}

{Well, I guess, if even for a little while, were truly separate. And to me, it was more like a couple of hours! Oh, and you may want to notice the little plant at the back of the little house thingy... and the tree out front.}

Alex was referring to the two most important things in those entire dimensions right then. At the back of each building, was a single Senzu- beanstalk. And out front, were the same tree that was found in Other- World, the one that provided apples so nutritious they kept someone full for months at a time. (Except maybe a Saiyan...)

{Hmm, not exactly first-class...}

Alex laughed. {That's exactly what I thought!}

In the small building there were only two rooms. The main room served as the bedroom, living room, and whatever else someone would want to make of it. And off to the side was the Bathroom, with the bare minimums.

"Well, no time better than the present..." Using the split-form technique, she got to what she had gone there to do.

~ Alexander ~

"Hmm..." Alexander looked around at the accommodations. "Well, at least there is one..." He was pressing his hand down on one of the two cot-like beds, finding it to be remarkably hard. Almost like stone! "Hmm, I wonder..." Slowly, he laid down on top of it, finding that it DID sag. There was enough sag in it, under the higher gravity, to make it almost comfortable.

"Ugh, well, now what?" He was talking to himself, finding it almost surprisingly easy.

Before he knew he had, he fell asleep.

~ Alex ~

At that time, Alex was hard at work. Her training was taking a new turn. Rather than fighting herself, she was now fighting the environment!

Merlin's favorite feature of the time chamber was the environment. He did not need to provide any challenges for fighters, because the entire planet provided an unpredictable environment that pushed warriors to their maximum. At the brink of the deadly zone was a field that was always covered in ice. Beyond that was a strip of fire so vast, that it made even the most archaic visions of hell look mild. And near the equator, the gravity was so intense that the very ground seemed to be constantly falling in upon itself. Like a giant whirlpool that seemed to be constantly taking in the ground and spitting out spikes of the strange white material that world was made of, only to swallow it again.

And even at maximum power, this was still a challenge for her. She had never gone this deep on her previous adventures into the time chamber. And she doubted that any of the Z-warriors ever had either. The most that any of them had ever spoken of was the endless fields of ice and fire.

Her thoughts wandered for only a moment, but it was long enough. "AAHH!!" A large spike of the strange, almost fluid material found its way to her arm.

Careful to continue dodging the large spikes, she made her way away from the equator. Still holding her now ravenously bleeding arm, she made it to the fire fields.

'Well, I'll have to use my energy to keep them away. But at least there's solid ground...' Slowly, she managed to find an area where she could settle down.

Wincing at the pain shooting up her arm, she knew she would have to do something soon, or risk falling unconscious. Something that could mean the end of her.

'Shoot. I'm using all that's left just to hold off the fire!' With almost no energy left for healing, she tried to think. Finding it increasingly difficult. The blood was rushing from her head and was staining the ground.

She was just contemplating trying to find a better spot when her hand rested on the pouch at her side. 'SENZU!!!' She couldn't think of a way to express how glad she was that she had thought to bring those along.

Quickly sticking her good hand in the pouch, she managed to fish out one of the beans.

The flames were beginning to get dangerously close, her lack of energy allowing them to close in on her.

Quickly, she crunched down on the slightly sour bean. Finding that it took far more energy to swallow than it seemed it should have.

For a moment, nothing happened. She began to panic, and the last of her energy seemed to have left, as the fire seemed to swallow her whole.

It seemed, if only for a moment, that the fires of that world had won. That she would never leave.

A gust of wind leapt from the ground around her, taking a large circle of the flames and springing them around her as she got up off the ground.

She could feel her power returning to her. A small tingling along where the cut in her arm was told her that would no longer be a problem. And having her power return to her felt even better! Her energy flowed through her so quickly and forcefully that the fire around her seemed to follow. Like a moth to the flame, the flame came to her. Surrounding her in a spiraling column of burning red fire!

She had come close to death! And now she thought she could never have felt so ALIVE! The very atmosphere near her crackled and swam as it seemed to have found a new center! Like the winds around the eye of the hurricane; the air, the forever burning fire, even the ground seemed to have begun to revolve around her!

~ Alexander ~

Alexander was awake now, and was even training in a field of fire identical to the one Alex was in at that very moment. But something was wrong.

Frowning, he tried to think. He was pushing himself as hard as he felt he could, but he couldn't get over this strange, itchy feeling. Like there was more to it.

With almost too much vigor, he called up a wave of cold energy and froze a mass of fire in place. A strange, hot ice took its place and he immediately landed a punch that shattered the whole thing into a million pieces, which he immediately incinerated with a blast of energy that could have been considered overkill.

He couldn't get over that feeling. His heart was racing and he felt alert. No matter how far he pushed, no matter what he did, none of it felt like enough. He started punching the ground with all the force and speed he could come up with, but it didn't even make a dent in the welling surge of energy.

With one final shout, he allowed the feeling to take over. Yelling at nothing in particular, he focused his energy through his body, trying to alleviate the burning need he felt.

He didn't know it at the time, but Alex was doing the same thing.

~ Alex ~

At that moment, when Alexander joined her in that feeling, it was as if someone had simply torn down the floodgate. And she could suddenly feel energy that she had never felt before! But it felt good! It felt natural! It felt.... almost perfect.

~ Both ~

Two of them, connected by an impossible bond. And now they were sharing in something they never thought possible.

The flames around them seemed to burn brighter with every second. The impossible waves of energy continued to burn at them until it happened.

Simultaneously, they opened their eyes. Each was burning a bright crimson, and the very air around them seemed to bend to their command as the flames pulsed, grew greater, then seemed to become irrelevant. Their auras alone was enough to shower the land in a bright red glow bright enough to put the worlds flames to shame.

And through it all, Merlin watched from where he was. With interest, he watched as they ascended to the next level.

"Well, now. I wonder how it will happen?"

~ Alex ~

Confused, yet at a strange peace, Alex stood. The energy surrounding her felt foreign, yet at the same time it felt like an integral part of her. She knew it was hers, and after only a moment, she wondered how she had ever lived without it.

Merlin watched with interest as she glowed a bright, ruby-red color.

A smile crossed his face, the change was coming.

Slowly, like some strange metamorphosis, the changes came.

First, she grew a tail. A tail that snaked and whipped and finally extended to show its full length, covered in fur as red as her eyes and hair.

And second, her ears changed. Moving up the sides of her head they seemed to hide themselves in the flaming locks of her hair, elongating as they did so.

Merlin couldn't see what happened behind the wall of her hair, so he decided he would check back later and moved on to Alexander.

~ Alexander ~

Alexander's changes were little more obvious.

He had grown a tail that was rather similar to his sister's, but that's where the similarity ended.

As he seemed to clench and pull his energy to his back, two shining wings, almost like those of a large bat, extended from his back. The overall effect was something that gave him the appearance of having power, and a grace that was almost heavenly.

The wings were so clear, and shimmered with an ethereal splendor that Merlin was led to come to the conclusion that they were made primarily of energy, having only minimal connection to his physical form. He had seen such a thing only a few times. Normally, it was only visible when the owner was at a very high level of power.

~ Merlin's chamber ~

Merlin sat in his chair, rubbing his chin. "Hmm... It would appear that, though they are still quite similar, even now they are growing apart. Good, that will make training easier on them. Though they may not want to fully separate..."

Placing his palms together, he came across another thought. "So young, and so powerful... I had always known that the first eternal from that world would be a human, but not quite so quickly." He looked to the small green stone at the center of the room, the one from which the images of the twins filled the room. "I just hope it is enough when they finally face him, and they know not to push their luck when they do before they're ready."

With a sigh, he brought another thought to mind. "Though, I suppose they aren't Eternals just yet... I shouldn't be talking like it's over. I'm sure there is quite a way to go yet... Hmm, I suppose all I can do now is to show them the way."

~ Alex ~

'What is this feeling?' Every muscle, every joint, every fiber of her body was absolutely radiating. She was positively overfilling with energy.

And she could see, and feel practically everything around her! {Hey! Alexander!}

{I know, I feel it too.}

{What just happened?}

{I don't know... And neither do you.}

{Yeah, but I suspect...}

Just then, Merlin seemed to have appeared before her eyes. It then started to say something. "Don't be alarmed. And if you ask any questions, I won't be able to answer. This is a pre-recorded message. If I've sent it to you, that mean you've gone through the change, just as I expected you would. I'd always felt that it would be a human to finally break that barrier between the energies."

With a short sigh, he continued. "Now, you're probably wondering what just happened. And why you've changed. Honestly, at the time I'm recording this, I don't know how you've changed. But I can tell you the why." Alex looked herself over, finding her tail.

{Whoa! I've got a tail!} Alexander's voice expressed the thought she had at that moment.

{Yeah! Me too!}

"The reason why, is because your body now expresses the truest form of your soul. I've been told that this transformation is quite unlike any before it. That you should now feel at peace, and yet at the same time ready to react quickly and at any time to anything. You should feel powerful, and yet at the same time in complete control. Part of this has to do with how this transformation is brought about.

"And this is the reason I felt that no Saiyan would reach this level. You see, this change is brought on by ONE feeling. ONE thought that crosses the barriers between all the energies. And in all the cases I've witnessed so far, all except Kinkilla of course, that feeling, that thought, was always a non-negative one. And that thought has always been very strong. As strong as the desire for revenge, or stronger, but not something that makes you want to hit something. That's fine for Super Saiyans, but they all seem to agree that it happened when they felt most 'alive'. Some felt happy, others felt pained, and still others felt almost as if they had watched it all.

"I haven't seen it yet, so I can't tell you yet what my take on yours is. Honestly, I don't even know where you are right now. Although I'm sure that you're thinking something incredible just happened.

"Now I know that you don't really know me all that well. But I've been watching you for a long time, as with the rest of those on Earth. And I can say this with confidence. I am proud of you. You and others have made me glad to be human.

"However, there is little I can do for you now except provide a little guidance. So don't think you have to be a stranger. If you're facing a problem, ask, and I will help you in any way I can." He seemed to think for a moment, then he looked back up. "Well, I suppose you're the first human to have reached this level. Which, I suppose, entitles you to naming it." He smiled. "I'll be interested to see what you come up with!" He waved, and disappeared from view.

{Well... that was interesting...}

{Yeah.} Alex was unconsciously rubbing her tail, still amazed at how natural it really felt.

As her ruby-red eyes scanned the landscape, she only just then realized that the flames had backed away from her, forming a perfect circle around her, fifty feet in each direction. And she hadn't even realized that she was pushing them away.

With a smile, she decided that that had been enough training for a while, and started walking back away from the equator.

Away from the spot that had awakened something in her, that she never knew was even there.

~~~~~~*** End of Chapter 19 ***~~~~~~

Well? How was it?

And can you believe that this one chapter took the ENTIRE day to write? (A lot of that is my dad's fault though...)

Alex: Wow! I was there, and NOW my heart is racing!

Alexander: Yeah! You made us sound COOL!

Alex Ultra: Uh... hehe. Okay, that's good, right?

Alex: Yeah. But it's them that really decide it.

Nayana: [Pokes head in] Um, guys?

Alex Ultra: Huh? What is it?

Nayana: [Points to a strange monster that looks like... PORK CHOPS!?!?] That.

Alex Ultra: WHAT THE HECK DID YOU DO!?!?

Nayana: I was gonna cook something to eat, and I think I added some of the wrong spices...

Alex Ultra: [Looks over the spice bottles] The Spice of Life? X.x Oh, great.

Alex: O.o Wow! That's one BIG hunk of meat! [Fires a blast that roasts the thing alive, until it's dead... again]

Twins: Yum! [begin chowing down]

Nayana: Um, I'm gonna go...

Alex Ultra: Yeah, they scare me too.

Nayana: No! They're making me hungry!

Alex Ultra: X_x Oh...

Uh... yeah.

LATER