Chapter 52: Pan's Fight
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Ammit stiffened slightly as he felt the female Saiyan's rapid approach from behind. He chuckled to himself and then dodged to the side just as Pan tried to thrust the sword into his back. The Dark Lord held his black sword at his side, grinning at her as she faced him and brought her blade to the ready position, her face flush with anger.
"Oh dear, I seem to have done something to upset you. Now what could that be?" his grin widened, "Yes, I suppose me killing the man you lov—oh wait; you aren't sure about your feelings towards him, are you? Well, not that it really matters now, but you might be interested to know that you were on poor Akira's mind several times during our fight. I guess you missed your chance, but there's always the afterlife..."
Pan's only response was to give a cry of rage and rush at the Dark Lord, sword cutting wildly through the air. The powerful alien easily avoided each attack, never raising his blade to parry any of her swings, smiling even more as the frustration on the young woman's face began to grow.
After nearly five minutes of toying with her, Ammit suddenly disappeared. Pan spun around, expecting an attack from behind, but before she'd made a full turn something sharp pressed against her neck.
She stopped moving instantly and glanced to the side. The Dark Lord was holding his sword to her throat, a smug expression on his face.
"You really aren't very good at this are you? Very well then, I'll give you some pointers. Lesson one: never lose sight of your opponent," the blade fell to his side and he beckoned her to try again.
Pan powered up and rushed at him once more, swinging as fast as she could. The two warriors flew through the air as the Super Saiyan's sword chased after the elusive alien, but always seemed a half second behind him.
Finally, in frustration, she brought the sword above her head and swung down, trying to cut the evil creature in half. A moment before she could connect the blow, the Dark Lord's hand shot up and grabbed the handle of her sword; he smiled as his black blade flashed forward and burned into her flesh between her ribs just under her left armpit. She looked down at the wound in pain and surprise, another three inches to the side and Ammit would have pierced her heart.
"Lesson two: never expose a vital area."
Pan held perfectly still as the sword was retracted and the signal for her to resume her attacks was once again given. The Saiyan didn't move for a moment as the rage and hatred that had filled her face slowly slipped away, replaced by a steely desire to show that she would not put up with being toyed with anymore. Golden energy blazed around her and surrounded the sword in her hand. She stared unblinking at the object of her hatred. The female Super Saiyan knew that Ammit wasn't using his full strength or speed against her, if he had the fight would have ended already, but the alien's overconfidence gave her a small opportunity to get in one good blow. After that battle would be over. She didn't think she could kill him, but all she wanted was to see a small amount of fear or surprise in those cold, red eyes before she joined Akira in the afterlife.
She dashed forward, but instead of swinging, she simply feinted and watched the Dark Lord's reaction. His muscles twitched slightly in the direction he moved, a shadow of a grin appeared on her otherwise emotionless face. She lunged at him again and as soon as she saw the twitch, she swung her arm back thrusting the blade behind her and to the right.
There was a slight grunt as the sword bit into the side of the powerful alien, she glanced over her shoulder at him and smiled.
"Lesson three: Don't underestimate a Saiyan," she said mockingly.
Ammit's expression hardened, "Indeed."
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The smoldering ruins of a mountain slowly began to shift and crack; a golden light briefly shown through the fissures and then faded. For a moment nothing happened and then an explosion of gold energy ripped open the ground.
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The dark sword flashed out with frightening speed, Pan was moving as quickly as possible, but she just couldn't keep up. She brought her sword up to parry one of Ammit's attacks, the two swords clanged together and then Pan screamed in pain as the black blade changed directions the moment it touched her weapon and then cut deeply into her arm.
The female Super Saiyan fell back a short distance, took a deep breath, and then charged at the Dark Lord once again.
She swung the sword as hard as she could at the mighty warlord, but Ammit was already gone. A second later, Pan's eyes bulged out as the dark sword slid along her stomach, leaving a deep cut that sealed immediately as the blade burned her flesh. The Saiyan doubled over and then arched her back and cried out in agony as Ammit slashed diagonally from her right shoulder to her left hip.
It took Pan a long time to push the pain from her mind, but when she did; she turned and straightened up, facing the Dark Lord with no fear in her eyes. She'd accepted her fate the second she'd seen Akira fall.
Ammit regarded her carefully as she stared at him. It surprised a little him that this little girl showed so much courage despite the fact that she was obviously going to die. In the times that he'd reached into her mind he'd known that she wanted to die with pride, that in itself was nothing new, but the fact that she was actually going through with it was rather remarkable. In his long life he'd faced many opponents who thought that they would remain unafraid until the inevitable end, but almost all were on their knees begging for mercy within just a few minutes. This girl could be a valuable addition to his army if she could be convinced to allow the Dark Lord to mold her into a true warrior, but first she would need to be broken and humbled. Then, when her mind and body were too weak to defend themselves against his manipulation, she would belong to him just as her uncle had.
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Gohan had watched long enough. His momentary shock over his daughter's actions had subsided and now it was time for him to step in. He couldn't just let her die at the hands of that maniac; his aura blazed around him and he shot into the air; a second later the rest of the Z Fighters followed him.
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Pan couldn't understand why Ammit didn't just finish her off. He obviously had her completely at his mercy, but he never went for a killing blow. Instead he seemed fixated on torturing and humiliating her.
The young Saiyan raised her sword again and barely managed to block another of Ammit's haphazard attacks. Her hands stung painfully as the two blades collided and she nearly dropped her weapon.
'Well, this is what I get for not paying attention all those times Trunks tried to teach me to use this thing,' she thought as another wave of pain shot up her arms as she parried another blow. Of course it wasn't entirely true that she hadn't paid attention during the lessons, she just hadn't been concentrating on the blade. She had been paying plenty of attention to the wielder of the sword, as he was, at the time, the object of her first crush; but when those feelings faded, so had her interest in swords. She looked up and noticed that the Dark Lord was smiling at her, no doubt enjoying the thoughts running through her mind.
Pan lunged forward and was promptly kicked in the face, sending her tumbling end over end through the air. By the time she managed to regain control of her flight, Ammit was already behind her; he drove his elbow into her side, breaking several ribs.
The young Saiyan cried out in pain as dark spots threatened to overwhelm her vision. She shook her head, trying to focus, but the spots didn't seem to want to leave. She was almost finished and she knew it.
"Back away now or I'll kill her before you even finish thinking about attacking."
Pan looked up in confusion and then she felt them. Her father and the rest of the Z-Fighters were hovering a short distance behind her. She'd been focusing so hard on Ammit, that she hadn't even noticed their approach.
"What difference does it make? You're just going to kill her anyway," Vegeta called out.
"True, but if you attack, her death will be on your heads. If you back down...well, she'll probably still die, but at least she'll have a chance. Besides, I don't know if I want to kill her, she'd make a wonderful soldier."
"I'd rather her die than become another of your pawns..." Gohan's voice was shaking with fear for his daughter. Pan glanced over her shoulder at him, he was obviously torn between attacking while hoping for the best and letting her fight this battle, even if it killed her.
"Dad, everyone, do what he says. This is my fight and I'm going to finish it, no matter what happens," she said giving her father a look that let him know that she would not accept his help this time.
For a long time no one said anything, and then Vegeta nodded, grabbing Gohan by the shoulder as the group slowly dropped back to earth. A moment later, Ammit fired a ki blast at the group, knocking them out of the sky. The six fighters hit the ground hard, but none of them seemed badly injured, the evil alien had just been playing more mind games with them.
Pan turned back to the Dark Lord after seeing her father get back to his feet, and readied her self for another onslaught. It came with lightening speed and the young Saiyan was forced to back away under the intensity of the attack. She managed to block some of the slashes, but also received a gash in the shoulder and another on her thigh, her hand was sliced, and, with the last swing before the alien backed off, her right cheek was cut deeply.
Only sheer stubbornness kept Pan in the air, her body was completely drained of energy, her broken ribs ached painfully, and the red spots in her vision were beginning to form larger dark spots.
She tried to think of something witty to say, something to let this vile creature know that she would fight him until her last breath and maybe even past that, but nothing came to mind; she was to exhausted to do anything except glare at him.
Then, something odd happened, in the back of her mind she felt something drawing nearer. It wasn't a power level, at least it wasn't the sensation that she got when she sensed something like that, but it was definitely something very familiar.
{I'm coming} Akira's voice rang inside her head. For a moment, Pan thought she might be dying and her friend was meeting her on the other side, but for some reason her brain dismissed that idea. She was still trying to figure out what was happening when Ammit's eyes narrowed slightly and focused on something behind her.
"So, you managed to survive after all," the Dark Lord said with a little surprise in his voice. "I am impressed; I thought for sure that I'd buried you once and for all."
"I guess you didn't bury me deep enough."
Pan turned and her heart nearly jumped out of her chest; Akira was hovering just behind her. Large patches of the red fur that covered his body had been seared off and all of his exposed skin seemed badly burned. Blood was running down his face from the sides of both eyes as well as from a large gash that was partially hidden underneath his spiky hair. Several areas of dried blood were also caked with dirt and ash from the destroyed mountain and his armor had been completely destroyed. Pan was amazed her friend had the power to stand, let alone fly.
"I'll take it from here Pan, go check on your father," his eyes seemed to be struggling to focus on her, but he gave her a lopsided grin.
"But you're in no cond—"
Time seemed to slow for Akira as a small rivulet of blood suddenly appeared in the corner of Pan's mouth and ran down her chin. The armor covering her stomach pushed forward and then cracked opened as a blood-covered, black blade thrust out of her stomach. Pan's eyes went wide with shock and pain as her blood splattered on Akira's chest. After what seemed like hours, Ammit wrenched the sword out of her back.
"Akira..." the female Saiyan whispered and then dropped like a stone.
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A/N: Sorry this took so long to get posted (and then I went off and left you with a cliffhanger). I don't know why, but this chapter just refused to come together for me. Maybe it was because I haven't watched a whole lot of anime with sword fights. Hopefully the next chapter won't take as long to write. Anyway, please remember to review.
Draco the Destroyer: Sorry I didn't respond last time, I actually meant to, but I guess I forgot. Anyway, in answer to your question: I'm not quite sure if I'm going to do a sequel, but I think it's a good possibility. I actually typed up part of the first chapter; it seems decent, but a bit darker than this story was. I'll probably post it as a pseudo-preview at the end of the last chapter.
Toni the Mink: Don't worry, Akira isn't going to be that much less of an idiot, I just thought there need to be a reason for him to be acting like a moron while he was fighting an obviously superior opponent.
Nadz: I'm glad you like Ammit as a bad guy; he's really grown quite a bit in my mind since I first started mentioning him in earlier chapters. Thanks for advising me on including the back story for him; the more I look at it, the more I like it.
Everyone else: Thank you all so much for your reviews, I've been checking my email almost hourly lately because I get such a kick out of reading what you all think of the story. Thank you!
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Ammit stiffened slightly as he felt the female Saiyan's rapid approach from behind. He chuckled to himself and then dodged to the side just as Pan tried to thrust the sword into his back. The Dark Lord held his black sword at his side, grinning at her as she faced him and brought her blade to the ready position, her face flush with anger.
"Oh dear, I seem to have done something to upset you. Now what could that be?" his grin widened, "Yes, I suppose me killing the man you lov—oh wait; you aren't sure about your feelings towards him, are you? Well, not that it really matters now, but you might be interested to know that you were on poor Akira's mind several times during our fight. I guess you missed your chance, but there's always the afterlife..."
Pan's only response was to give a cry of rage and rush at the Dark Lord, sword cutting wildly through the air. The powerful alien easily avoided each attack, never raising his blade to parry any of her swings, smiling even more as the frustration on the young woman's face began to grow.
After nearly five minutes of toying with her, Ammit suddenly disappeared. Pan spun around, expecting an attack from behind, but before she'd made a full turn something sharp pressed against her neck.
She stopped moving instantly and glanced to the side. The Dark Lord was holding his sword to her throat, a smug expression on his face.
"You really aren't very good at this are you? Very well then, I'll give you some pointers. Lesson one: never lose sight of your opponent," the blade fell to his side and he beckoned her to try again.
Pan powered up and rushed at him once more, swinging as fast as she could. The two warriors flew through the air as the Super Saiyan's sword chased after the elusive alien, but always seemed a half second behind him.
Finally, in frustration, she brought the sword above her head and swung down, trying to cut the evil creature in half. A moment before she could connect the blow, the Dark Lord's hand shot up and grabbed the handle of her sword; he smiled as his black blade flashed forward and burned into her flesh between her ribs just under her left armpit. She looked down at the wound in pain and surprise, another three inches to the side and Ammit would have pierced her heart.
"Lesson two: never expose a vital area."
Pan held perfectly still as the sword was retracted and the signal for her to resume her attacks was once again given. The Saiyan didn't move for a moment as the rage and hatred that had filled her face slowly slipped away, replaced by a steely desire to show that she would not put up with being toyed with anymore. Golden energy blazed around her and surrounded the sword in her hand. She stared unblinking at the object of her hatred. The female Super Saiyan knew that Ammit wasn't using his full strength or speed against her, if he had the fight would have ended already, but the alien's overconfidence gave her a small opportunity to get in one good blow. After that battle would be over. She didn't think she could kill him, but all she wanted was to see a small amount of fear or surprise in those cold, red eyes before she joined Akira in the afterlife.
She dashed forward, but instead of swinging, she simply feinted and watched the Dark Lord's reaction. His muscles twitched slightly in the direction he moved, a shadow of a grin appeared on her otherwise emotionless face. She lunged at him again and as soon as she saw the twitch, she swung her arm back thrusting the blade behind her and to the right.
There was a slight grunt as the sword bit into the side of the powerful alien, she glanced over her shoulder at him and smiled.
"Lesson three: Don't underestimate a Saiyan," she said mockingly.
Ammit's expression hardened, "Indeed."
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The smoldering ruins of a mountain slowly began to shift and crack; a golden light briefly shown through the fissures and then faded. For a moment nothing happened and then an explosion of gold energy ripped open the ground.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----
The dark sword flashed out with frightening speed, Pan was moving as quickly as possible, but she just couldn't keep up. She brought her sword up to parry one of Ammit's attacks, the two swords clanged together and then Pan screamed in pain as the black blade changed directions the moment it touched her weapon and then cut deeply into her arm.
The female Super Saiyan fell back a short distance, took a deep breath, and then charged at the Dark Lord once again.
She swung the sword as hard as she could at the mighty warlord, but Ammit was already gone. A second later, Pan's eyes bulged out as the dark sword slid along her stomach, leaving a deep cut that sealed immediately as the blade burned her flesh. The Saiyan doubled over and then arched her back and cried out in agony as Ammit slashed diagonally from her right shoulder to her left hip.
It took Pan a long time to push the pain from her mind, but when she did; she turned and straightened up, facing the Dark Lord with no fear in her eyes. She'd accepted her fate the second she'd seen Akira fall.
Ammit regarded her carefully as she stared at him. It surprised a little him that this little girl showed so much courage despite the fact that she was obviously going to die. In the times that he'd reached into her mind he'd known that she wanted to die with pride, that in itself was nothing new, but the fact that she was actually going through with it was rather remarkable. In his long life he'd faced many opponents who thought that they would remain unafraid until the inevitable end, but almost all were on their knees begging for mercy within just a few minutes. This girl could be a valuable addition to his army if she could be convinced to allow the Dark Lord to mold her into a true warrior, but first she would need to be broken and humbled. Then, when her mind and body were too weak to defend themselves against his manipulation, she would belong to him just as her uncle had.
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Gohan had watched long enough. His momentary shock over his daughter's actions had subsided and now it was time for him to step in. He couldn't just let her die at the hands of that maniac; his aura blazed around him and he shot into the air; a second later the rest of the Z Fighters followed him.
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Pan couldn't understand why Ammit didn't just finish her off. He obviously had her completely at his mercy, but he never went for a killing blow. Instead he seemed fixated on torturing and humiliating her.
The young Saiyan raised her sword again and barely managed to block another of Ammit's haphazard attacks. Her hands stung painfully as the two blades collided and she nearly dropped her weapon.
'Well, this is what I get for not paying attention all those times Trunks tried to teach me to use this thing,' she thought as another wave of pain shot up her arms as she parried another blow. Of course it wasn't entirely true that she hadn't paid attention during the lessons, she just hadn't been concentrating on the blade. She had been paying plenty of attention to the wielder of the sword, as he was, at the time, the object of her first crush; but when those feelings faded, so had her interest in swords. She looked up and noticed that the Dark Lord was smiling at her, no doubt enjoying the thoughts running through her mind.
Pan lunged forward and was promptly kicked in the face, sending her tumbling end over end through the air. By the time she managed to regain control of her flight, Ammit was already behind her; he drove his elbow into her side, breaking several ribs.
The young Saiyan cried out in pain as dark spots threatened to overwhelm her vision. She shook her head, trying to focus, but the spots didn't seem to want to leave. She was almost finished and she knew it.
"Back away now or I'll kill her before you even finish thinking about attacking."
Pan looked up in confusion and then she felt them. Her father and the rest of the Z-Fighters were hovering a short distance behind her. She'd been focusing so hard on Ammit, that she hadn't even noticed their approach.
"What difference does it make? You're just going to kill her anyway," Vegeta called out.
"True, but if you attack, her death will be on your heads. If you back down...well, she'll probably still die, but at least she'll have a chance. Besides, I don't know if I want to kill her, she'd make a wonderful soldier."
"I'd rather her die than become another of your pawns..." Gohan's voice was shaking with fear for his daughter. Pan glanced over her shoulder at him, he was obviously torn between attacking while hoping for the best and letting her fight this battle, even if it killed her.
"Dad, everyone, do what he says. This is my fight and I'm going to finish it, no matter what happens," she said giving her father a look that let him know that she would not accept his help this time.
For a long time no one said anything, and then Vegeta nodded, grabbing Gohan by the shoulder as the group slowly dropped back to earth. A moment later, Ammit fired a ki blast at the group, knocking them out of the sky. The six fighters hit the ground hard, but none of them seemed badly injured, the evil alien had just been playing more mind games with them.
Pan turned back to the Dark Lord after seeing her father get back to his feet, and readied her self for another onslaught. It came with lightening speed and the young Saiyan was forced to back away under the intensity of the attack. She managed to block some of the slashes, but also received a gash in the shoulder and another on her thigh, her hand was sliced, and, with the last swing before the alien backed off, her right cheek was cut deeply.
Only sheer stubbornness kept Pan in the air, her body was completely drained of energy, her broken ribs ached painfully, and the red spots in her vision were beginning to form larger dark spots.
She tried to think of something witty to say, something to let this vile creature know that she would fight him until her last breath and maybe even past that, but nothing came to mind; she was to exhausted to do anything except glare at him.
Then, something odd happened, in the back of her mind she felt something drawing nearer. It wasn't a power level, at least it wasn't the sensation that she got when she sensed something like that, but it was definitely something very familiar.
{I'm coming} Akira's voice rang inside her head. For a moment, Pan thought she might be dying and her friend was meeting her on the other side, but for some reason her brain dismissed that idea. She was still trying to figure out what was happening when Ammit's eyes narrowed slightly and focused on something behind her.
"So, you managed to survive after all," the Dark Lord said with a little surprise in his voice. "I am impressed; I thought for sure that I'd buried you once and for all."
"I guess you didn't bury me deep enough."
Pan turned and her heart nearly jumped out of her chest; Akira was hovering just behind her. Large patches of the red fur that covered his body had been seared off and all of his exposed skin seemed badly burned. Blood was running down his face from the sides of both eyes as well as from a large gash that was partially hidden underneath his spiky hair. Several areas of dried blood were also caked with dirt and ash from the destroyed mountain and his armor had been completely destroyed. Pan was amazed her friend had the power to stand, let alone fly.
"I'll take it from here Pan, go check on your father," his eyes seemed to be struggling to focus on her, but he gave her a lopsided grin.
"But you're in no cond—"
Time seemed to slow for Akira as a small rivulet of blood suddenly appeared in the corner of Pan's mouth and ran down her chin. The armor covering her stomach pushed forward and then cracked opened as a blood-covered, black blade thrust out of her stomach. Pan's eyes went wide with shock and pain as her blood splattered on Akira's chest. After what seemed like hours, Ammit wrenched the sword out of her back.
"Akira..." the female Saiyan whispered and then dropped like a stone.
.
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A/N: Sorry this took so long to get posted (and then I went off and left you with a cliffhanger). I don't know why, but this chapter just refused to come together for me. Maybe it was because I haven't watched a whole lot of anime with sword fights. Hopefully the next chapter won't take as long to write. Anyway, please remember to review.
Draco the Destroyer: Sorry I didn't respond last time, I actually meant to, but I guess I forgot. Anyway, in answer to your question: I'm not quite sure if I'm going to do a sequel, but I think it's a good possibility. I actually typed up part of the first chapter; it seems decent, but a bit darker than this story was. I'll probably post it as a pseudo-preview at the end of the last chapter.
Toni the Mink: Don't worry, Akira isn't going to be that much less of an idiot, I just thought there need to be a reason for him to be acting like a moron while he was fighting an obviously superior opponent.
Nadz: I'm glad you like Ammit as a bad guy; he's really grown quite a bit in my mind since I first started mentioning him in earlier chapters. Thanks for advising me on including the back story for him; the more I look at it, the more I like it.
Everyone else: Thank you all so much for your reviews, I've been checking my email almost hourly lately because I get such a kick out of reading what you all think of the story. Thank you!