Chapter 48

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Akira had taken half a step towards the large alien when it turned and fired a powerful, green ki blast at him. The young Saiyan was completely off guard and while the blast didn't hurt him badly, it did knock him to the ground.

"This fight is not for weaklings, so stay down boy!" Runihura snapped as he turned and fired a beam at Pan and then another at Krillin. Both were hit in the back and collapsed to the ground.

Akira could tell that Pan wasn't too badly injured, but Krillin was either dead or unconscious. Rage boiled over and clouded the young man's vision, but with a deep breath he let it slip away. It was not yet time to reveal himself to his enemies. Using instant transmission, he teleported to Pan and helped her to her feet.

As he had thought, she was basically uninjured, and soon the two of them were hurrying to Krillin's side. The grey-haired man was still alive, but only just barely. Picking one of the beans that had spilled from the bag off the ground, Akira placed it in the human's mouth and forced tilted his head back, hoping instinct would force Krillin's body to swallow it. The next several seconds seemed to take forever, but then the human's throat moved and a moment later he opened his eyes and stood up.

"I really wish people would stop shooting at me like that, it's really starting to get old," he quipped, letting the two Saiyans know that he was alright. The three friends again split up and a within a few minutes all of the Z-Fighters were healed and ready to fight once more. Only two beans remained in the bag after everyone was healed, but given the significant decrease in Ammit's forces already, no one was too worried about needing additional healing. Once everyone was back on their feet, they turned their attention to the battle raging in the skies overhead.

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As soon as Vegeta had recovered from the initial attack by Runihura, he'd shot up into the air and waited patiently for his foe. He didn't wait long.

Unlike previous face offs with the large alien, this time there was no taunting, no thinly masked threats idly being tossed around in semi-polite conversation. The armored warrior simply flew right at the Saiyan Prince and the two began pounding on each other.

For several minutes neither fighter used much strategy other than to try to hit his opponent as hard and as frequently as possible. Both warriors were moving at impossible speeds and each seemed to be landing blows at will. However, slowly but surely Vegeta was driving Runihura back and soon the large alien was forced to become more defensive as the powerful Super Saiyan continued to shower him with punches and kicks.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Wow," Uubu said as his eyes shifted back and forth, trying to keep up with the action. "Vegeta's really on his game today, even after that attack from Goten he's still kicking this guys ass."

Gohan, Pan, and Trunks nodded in agreement, they were only catching bits and pieces of the battle as the two fighters zipped back and forth across the sky, but from what they could see, the fight was going well for the Saiyan Prince.

Akira didn't comment one way or another; he just kept watching the fight. With his keen Saiyan eyes he could see that Vegeta was breathing heavily and his attacks didn't seem to be doing as much damage to the large alien as they should. Runihura was getting weaker, but the Super Saiyan was fading faster.

"Don't you think so, Akira?" Pan's voice broke through his thoughts.

"About what?" he asked.

"Do you think that Vegeta's doing well? I think he's going to have this battle wrapped up pretty quick."

"I hope so..." Akira said as he turned his attention back to the fight. 'If he doesn't finish this quick he's not going to be finishing it at all.'

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Vegeta tossed a small ki blast at Runihura, which was swatted away with ease, but the moment the Supreme Commander took his eyes off the Saiyan Prince, Vegeta flew sideways and then shot forward, hitting the big alien in the side of the head and staggering him. The Super Saiyan didn't back off for a second, grabbing his enemy by the arm and swinging him in a big arc and throwing him towards the ground.

Runihura flipped in the air and managed to get his feet under him before he landed. The second his feet touched the ground he looked up, just as Vegeta landed a vicious kick, sending the mighty alien deep into the earth. The Saiyan Prince powered up a ball of ki and hurled it into the hole.

Vegeta floated up into the air as the ground cracked and glowed when the energy ball hit its target and exploded causing dust to shoot out of the hole. If he was at full power, Vegeta would have attacked before he could even see his opponent, but in his weakened state, he knew he couldn't afford any unnecessary wastes of energy. So he waited patiently for Ammit's Supreme Commander to show himself.

As the Saiyan Prince searched for signs of his enemy, he also did his best to regain some of his energy. 'Curse you Kakkorot! When you told me level three was difficult to control the first few times you used it; you could have mentioned that it also hurt like hell to maintain,' Vegeta thought as he tried to force his muscles to stop trembling.

Suddenly in the midst of the dust, a green glow erupted and Runihura flew into the sky and glared at the Super Saiyan.

"You will not prevail against me, little Prince. In all my long life, only one being has had the power to defeat me and that was Ammit. It was when I had been humbled that he spared me and made me his second in command, allowing me the honor of helping him rebuild his glorious empire. No other being in the universe can hope to overcome me."

Vegeta crossed his arms and smirked. "If no one had ever beaten you before you met that decrepit mummy, then you must not have gotten out much," he said smugly, "and obviously you've never faced a Super Saiyan." He was already rushing forward as the last words came from his mouth, hammering the big alien with a powerful punch that spun him around.

Vegeta began delivering vicious uppercuts to Runihura's face and chest and the large warrior fell back under the never ceasing attack until finally his foot shot up out of nowhere and caught the Saiyan Prince in the neck. Vegeta floated away, holding tightly to his throat and trying to pull air into his lungs.

Runihura didn't give him the time to recover as he swiftly closed the distance between himself and Vegeta and began landing blow after blow, making the Saiyan's head snap back and forth as each punch was delivered. He drove his knee into the winded warrior and blood flew from Vegeta's mouth, then he spun and backhanded the Saiyan Prince into the side of a mountain.

Vegeta looked out of the hole that had formed in the cliff when he'd hit with a dazed expression on his face.

'Just a little closer.'

Runihura floated lea surly over to Vegeta and hovered a few feet in front of him with a look of triumph. "I told you that you didn't stand a chance, I guess now you believe me."

Vegeta blinked slowly as if trying to focus his eyes, "Wh...what I be...believe is that you...talk too much." Suddenly the dazed look on his face vanished and was replaced by a smile, his hand shot forward as he yelled, "GARLIC GUN!"

A massive light, purple energy wave erupted from Vegeta's hand and swallowed the large, red alien before it could even blink. Runihura was sent tumbling end over end for hundreds of feet as he screamed in pain before finally crashing to the ground. The Saiyan Prince chased after him and dropped down right on top of the bleeding warrior.

"Just so you know," Vegeta said as he ground his heel into the abdomen of the downed fighter, "I've been playing possum with you for the last couple of minutes. I let you think I'd grown to weak to fight back; and maybe I was getting weaker , but mostly I was just waiting for you to drop your guard. Power isn't the only way to win a fight; you also have to have a strategy. I guess Ammit forgot to teach you that." He hopped off of Runihura and looked down at him in disgust, "I guess it's time to finish this little fight." The Supreme Commander looked scared for the first time since the battle had begun.

Vegeta reached down, grabbed Runihura by the throat, roughly pulled him to his feet, and with a flick of his wrist sent the large alien soaring into the sky. A golden aura flashed around him as the Saiyan shot into the sky, quickly overtaking his tumbling adversary and then hit him with a brutal kick that abruptly stopped Runihura's upward flight.

For a moment the large alien seemed to be stuck to the end of Vegeta's foot and then he slowly dropped back towards the earth. A second before he hit the ground, Runihura came to a screeching halt as the Super Saiyan suddenly appeared below him and drove his fist into the large alien's stomach. Vegeta threw the Supreme Commander and the alien's body dug a small trench in the dirt before finally coming to a stop only a few yards from the remainder of Ammit's legion. The Saiyan Prince stalked towards his foe, ready to finish him off once and for all.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pan glanced at Akira out of the corner of her eye as he silently watched the battle. Something about him had changed since they'd arrived. The most obvious change was that he'd grown very serious, but it seemed to be even more than that. He seemed older somehow.

And then it hit her. He looked like he had in her dream. Behind his eyes she could almost see a well of power that was just bursting to get out. As she gazed at him her fears about the outcome of this battle seemed to melt away.

Suddenly he turned his head and looked at her. She blushed and turned her attention back to Vegeta. Akira stared at her for a couple more seconds, then smiled and also went back to watching the fight.

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Runihura backed away from Vegeta as the Saiyan Prince advanced on him.

"I guess you were right," Vegeta called out with a cocky voice, "it was a good thing I didn't eat that senzu bean, just imagine how much quicker this would have been if I'd been at full power. Come now Supreme Commander, stop running and meet your death with as much honor as you can muster."

The large alien looked around wildly and then his eyes widened slightly and a small smile crept over his face. "I guess it's time to show you MY strategy...Fire!"

Over forty aliens fired ki beams at the unsuspecting Vegeta; there was no way for him to avoid them all and he was engulfed in a fiery explosion.

When the smoke cleared, the Saiyan Prince was lying at the bottom of a deep crater. His long, golden hair became black and returned to its normal length as he dropped out of his transformed state. Blood was running down the side of his face and seaping from numerous gashes and burns all over the rest of his body. His once polished armor had been completely destroyed. His body had nothing left to give.

Runihura stepped forward on unsteady legs and looked down at the barely conscious warrior.

He had won.

It might not have been the most honorable victory, but he had stopped caring about that nonsense long ago. Winning was all that mattered, the ends always justified the means.

Holding his hand in front on him, palm up, he called out, "Rroje Celesi!" and a large crescent-shaped, energy blade formed in his hand. He smiled evilly.

Vegeta was struggling to climb to his feet when the ki boomerang ripped into his leg, splattering blood on the rocks behind him. The Saiyan collapsed to the ground again.

"I warned you Vegeta, I told you that you could either join us or die. Well, you made your choice, now it's time to accept the consequences!" The blade shot forward again, aiming right at the Saiyan Prince's chest. Vegeta watched it come without the slightest look of fear, he'd accepted his fate.

Just before the blade reached its destination, a hand surrounded by a golden aura shot out and caught it; Runihura's eyes went wide in surprise.

Akira had caught the energy blade.

"If you are going to fight without honor, then you will never fight again," the young man said menacingly. He squeezed the blade and it shattered.

The large alien once again backed away as a Super Saiyan approached him. The warrior before him was obviously little more than a child, but his eyes shown with an intensity that made Runihura's insides go cold. Suddenly pain erupted in his back as the sound of his spine cracking reached his ears; his legs instantly went numb as the image of the boy dissolved.

"You really should pay more attention," Akira whispered from behind the alien, "bad things can happen when you lose sight of your opponent." The Super Saiyan threw the alien into the air and then appeared in front of him, grabbing the large creature by the throat and squeezing.

"M...mer...cy," Runihura choked out, gasping for air.

"Mercy? You dare ask for mercy? You, who would have watched the deaths of my friends with joy and then enslaved or destroyed the people of this planet, think that you deserve mercy?" Akira's face twisted in anger, and then, slowly relaxed. "Very well then, here is far more mercy than you deserve." He threw the alien to the ground and fired a medium power ki blast after him. The blast hit Runihura at the same time the ground did.

As the smoke cleared, Akira dropped down next to the crater that had been formed and looked in. The large alien lay very still, but the young Saiyan could tell that he was still alive.

"There's your mercy. You've been humiliated, first by Vegeta and now by me. With your injuries you probably will never have the strength that you once possessed, but you still have your life...maybe you'll use it for something good now."

Behind him the small, dark-robed figure began to clap.

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A/N: Alright, now we're finally going to be getting to the good stuff...or at least to the last stuff. There shouldn't be too many chapter left... about four, I think (maybe more if I let my imagination run away with me during this last battle), so depending on how quickly these chapters reach their final stages, I could be finished by or just a little after next weekend! Crazy...

A/N: By the way, did you like Akira's Goku-esc speach at the end? I wanted it to sound kind of like what Goku said to Freiza on Namek, hopefully it was similar enough for everyone to catch the reference... Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, please review. Thanks!