Chapter 53: The Next Level

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"Oh shit!" Krillin cried out as he watched Pan drop from the sky, a small trail of blood following her like the tail of a comet. The former monk started to turn to Gohan, but before he could, a sudden gust of wind blew past him. Looking up, he could see a golden streak of light heading towards the falling Saiyan.

"Wait, you forgot to take th—" his hand went to the bag of senzu beans at his side, but that found that it was missing, "Okay, never mind..."

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Akira was frozen. He couldn't move to catch Pan, couldn't call out her name; couldn't take his eyes off of her as she fell hundreds of feet towards the ground, couldn't do anything but stare. Then just before she smashed into the ground, he tore his gaze from the scene and focused on Ammit.

The young man's mouth moved several times, but no sound came out. A silvery blue color passed over his yellow irises and then a single tear rolled down his cheek. Akira's breath was coming out in quick, shallow gasps as he stared at the Dark Lord, hatred coursing through his veins.

"You killed her," he said, his voice barely above a whisper. "She was no threat to you and you killed her...why?"

"Does it really matter? She would have died sooner or later anyway...actually, she might not have. I probably would have tried to convert her if you hadn't butted in again," Ammit chuckled, enjoying the pain that he was inflicting upon the young man. "You had to try and play hero again and it cost your mate her life...some hero."

Akira's face seemed to go slack as the evil alien's words hit home. Was it possible? Had he made another miscalculation? He'd been brought back to life to help save the planet, but all he'd managed to do so far was get his friend killed.

"Don't forget when you almost killed her father at the Tenkaichi Budoukia," Ammit called out, no doubt reading the young man's mind again. "You seem to have a knack for hurting those around you..."

"Tha...that was an accident, I...I didn't know how to control myself..." there was little confidence in the young man's voice as he spoke. In truth, he'd never really forgiven himself for his actions that day and Ammit was well aware of it.

"Yes, an accident, but one that nearly killed poor Gohan and then almost turned you into a murderer against Sike." The Dark Lord rubbed his chin in mock contemplation, "Are you really sure you're one of the good guys? I mean, it seems like you do a lot more harm than good."

Every word from Ammit's mouth drove a dagger into Akira's heart, the warlord was giving voice to the young man's inner most fears and he didn't know how to respond; his mind just seemed to go blank. And then, in the midst of the nothingness, a memory came forward; a little Namek child, lying face down in a river of blood.

It was like the opening of a floodgate. Where only moments before Akira had been at the point of despair, now there was a new emotion building inside of him as his mind brought up memory after memory. Pan lying unconscious and broken at the feet of Sike. Tien being nearly beaten to death by Yurak. The thousands of people watching the tournament that had had their lives snuffed out at the hands of Xellos. The village in Namek burning while the injured slowly bled to death. And Akira knew that he had only seen the tip of the iceberg, if Ammit walked away from this battle, every planet in the galaxy would suffer in one way or another; if it didn't end today, it might not ever end.

The bluish-silver color passed over the young man's eyes again as he trembled with rage and then another small tear ran down his cheek and fell from his body. The clouds around the two fighters began to slowly swirl.

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Pan watched the helplessness and shock on Akira's face as he grew farther and farther away as she fell. There was so much that she had wanted to say to him, but now she wouldn't get that chance; the young Saiyan could feel her life draining out of her.

She looked down and watched the ground rushing up to meet her, it was a curious sensation. Of course, she'd been thrown to the ground many times in the past, but somehow this time seemed more symbolic, as if it was her death hurrying to greet her.

The young woman instinctively closed her eyes as she fell the final ten feet, and then two strong arms latched themselves around her and stopped her decent. Pan opened her eyes weakly and found herself looking into the worried eyes of her father and then the world seemed to grow very dark.

"Don't worry honey, you're going to be alright," he said as he gently laid her on the ground and placed a senzu bean in her mouth.

Pan could feel the bean on her tongue and knew that she needed to swallow it, but her mouth wouldn't work. She felt too tired to even do something as simple as swallow, all she wanted was to let go and taste the sweet restfulness of death. Her eyes began to slowly close.

"Pan?" Gohan could feel his daughter slipping away from him. "Pan, I need you to swallow this." There was no response, no sign that she'd even heard him. "Pan Son, this in your father speaking and you are going to swallow this bean right now!" He grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her closer to him as he yelled.

Her throat moved ever so slightly.

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Akira looked at Ammit through the red haze of his fury. Even if the young Saiyan hadn't been injured, the evil alien would be much more powerful than him. There was no denying it, Akira would not be able to go toe to toe with this enemy for very long, he just wasn't strong enough, but it didn't matter. Nothing mattered anymore.

"I don't care how strong you are," the young man said in a low voice, "you will not be allowed to walk away from this fight. I have to die again to get the job done; you will not live to hurt another being."

"Do you still think that you can somehow beat me? Haven't you figured it out yet? Nothing can bring me down me. It was prophesied on the day of my birth; no being born into this universe has the power defeat me. Even those silly kais couldn't do it, they could only lock me away, but now I'm free and they no longer have the numbers to stand against me. Nothing does."

Akira didn't answer, didn't even seem to have heard what the Dark Lord had said. A yellow mist began slowly rising from the his body and the clouds swirled even faster.

Ammit looked around him at the strange weather and then looked back at the boy curiously. Something strange was going on; the Saiyan should not have had enough power left to create this effect. And then his eyes fell upon the sky line where he could see that the ground was beginning to shake.

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Bulma was clearing the dishes from the small snack that the Z-Fighter's wives and children had just had. Not a lot had been eaten as everyone was still anxiously awaiting word on any new developments in the battle.

Master Roshi had come by shortly after lunch and had told them that he had felt a terrible battle raging, though it seemed that everyone had survived it, but after that fight died down the only thing he could sense was several power levels sitting around doing nothing. No one could understand what was happening and so they sat in the living room quietly talking and watching the old man out of the corner of their eyes as he tried to focus on the battle. And then his eyes went wide and he looked fearfully at Chichi and Videl.

"Wa...was it Gohan?" Videl bravely asked after several seconds of silence.

"No, it was Pan," Master Roshi replied quietly. "I think she was fighting something, but I can't feel whatever it is, and then she just..." his voice trailed off and the two women began to cry.

"Wait," Bulma said with a puzzled look on her face, "that doesn't make any sense, Pan and Akira are still a long ways out; they can't be back."

The turtle hermit shrugged, "I don't know how she got here, but it was definitely Pan."

The room was silent for several moments except for the sobs from Chichi and Videl, who were being hugged by Bra, Bulma, and Valese. And then the room began to shake as an earthquake hit the city.

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Pan finally sucked in a deep breath and Gohan relaxed. For a moment he hadn't been sure if she was going to make it.

Her eyes fluttered open and her wounds began to heal, "Hi dad, how's it going?" she asked in a still weak voice.

Gohan smiled and tears of joy filled his eyes. "Well, I think I'm doing much better now. How do you feel?"

"I'm fine," she tried to sit up, but small jolts of pain from her abs and back forced her to lie back down. "Ouch," she said in surprise.

"What's wrong?"

"I don't know, I just...my stomach still hurts."

Gohan gently peeled back the broken armor around the final wound that she had received from Ammit and examined it carefully. There was a thin, red line that looked like it had not fully healed yet. "Well, that's weird."

"What is?" Pan said as she tried to get a glimpse of what he was looking at.

"It looks like you weren't completely healed."

"How is that possible? Senzu beans are supposed to heal everything," the young warrior asked as she ignored the little pangs of pain and got to her feet.

"I don't know," Gohan thought about it for a moment and then shrugged. "Maybe it has something to do with the energy around the sword or perhaps something was wrong with the bean..."

Pan shifted her weight from side to side and twisted her back. The pain was annoying, but nothing that would bother her too much.

"It's no big deal dad, it hardly even hu—" she didn't get a chance to finish as the ground began to shake, nearly knocking her off her feet. She looked up into the sky and her eyes went wide.

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Several of the smaller mountains near the battlefield collapsed as the shaking of the ground grew fiercer; it seemed like the whole planet was coming apart. The swirld clouds were now filled with lightening and thunder was rumbling around the powerful fighters floating in the air.

The wispy, yellow mist continued to flow rise from Akira's trembling body, the Saiyan's red fur and black hair glowed for a moment and then faded.

The young man was looking down as visions of Pan being impaled danced before his eyes. He could hear her soft, pleading voice whisper her final word: "Akira" In his mind the voice went from a gentle whisper to a harsh accusation, it had been his fault. His fault for not protecting her, his fault for interfering, his fault that she had felt that pain, his fault that she was gone.

' No, it wasn't my fault,' he looked up at Ammit as his eyes once again a metallic blue color flashed over his eyes. 'It was his.'

An intense rage had been building inside Akira from the moment that he saw Pan fall and with it, a seemingly uncontrollable power. The young man had tried to hold it back, he knew that letting that kind of power out could push him over the edge like it had at the tournament, so he fought to suppress it, but the power continued to grow stronger. And then, as he stared into the Dark Lords burning red eyes, he stopped fighting, stopped holding back, and just let it go. Akira's head was thrown back as he screamed; his barrier dropped and bright, golden energy enveloped him.

Ammit was forced to turn away as the blinding light exploded around the young man. He could now feel the power radiating from his adversary and knew that taunting the Saiyan had been a miscalculation. Despite the mistake, his confidence remained in tact; any powering up the warrior from earth did was only delaying the inevitable; in the end nothing could stop him. However, as the Akira's power continued to grow, a small whisper of doubt began to form in the back of the Dark Lord's mind.

The sphere of golden energy began to shine even brighter as it became a brilliant white color with gold and red lightening bolts crackling around it. Ammit looked at it and squinted, in the center he could just make out the form of a long haired warrior, arms straight out to his sides, head tilted back as he continued to cry out in rage and pain. Finally, the light slowly began to shrink back towards the young man, as his screams quieted; the energy faded away and the earth stopped shaking. The Dark Lord's eyes widened slightly at the sight of the warrior before him.

Akira's hair now ran down to the middle of his back, not quite as long as it was in his Super Saiyan 3 form, but close. It was spiked wildly in every direction and had become golden again except for the tips of each of the spikes, which were bright red, giving the appearance that the young man's head was on fire. The fur covering his body and tail had gone from dark red to blond and his muscles seemed to have shrunk slightly, giving him a more natural look. The numerous wounds that he had received at the hands of Ammit were still clearly visible, but seemed to have healed somewhat with his new transformation. None of these things held the Dark Lord's gaze though, the only thing he could see was the Saiyan's eyes, which had become a silvery-blue and burned with hatred for the enemy that stood before him.

Akira's face twisted into a scowl, "You and your men have killed thousands, maybe even millions in your mad quest for revenge against the kais. You have brought fear and suffering to any who stood in your way and have crushed the weak simply because it was within your power to do so. You have used your strength and abilities to cause pain and destruction instead of peace and prosperity. And now, the cries for justice from those that you enslaved or sent to the grave will be answered. You will not harm anyone ever again." The barrier masking Akira's energy went back up as he finished speaking and his body relaxed as he waited for the Dark Lord to make the first move.

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Master Roshi fell out of his chair as he felt the explosion of power from the battlefield. Several of the grieving women looked at him curiously, but didn't bother to ask him what was going on. Their focus was still on the perceived loss of Pan, only Eighteen seemed interested.

"What happened?" she whispered quietly.

"There was a terrible power that appeared and then disappeared. I don't know who or what it was, but...I don't think even Vegeta could reach this level, it's stronger than Goku was at level four."

Eighteen took a moment to digest the information and then said, "We won't mention this to the others, there's no point in worrying them about something we can't control..." her voice trailed off as her thoughts turned to her husband.

The turtle hermit nodded and tried to focus on the battle again.

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Ammit snarled and swung his sword at his enemy's neck, but all he managed to his was an afterimage. It took the powerful alien a moment to locate the Saiyan, and when he did, the sight infuriated him. Akira was hovering a short distance away casually examining his finger nails and looking somewhat bored.

"What are you?" the Dark Lord demanded. "I know all about Saiyans and none of them could be this strong."

"You've lived a long time, yet you still don't understand how the universe works, do you?" the young Saiyan smirked. "I am the fulfillment of the natural order of things. Darkness only exists in the absence of light; it only holds power until the light returns. I am a light that shines in the darkness," a sparkling light-gold aura shone around Akira and chased all shadows from his face. "I am the answer to those that have cried out for retribution, who desired nothing but to live in peace and were struck down because of it. I am the truth to your lies, the life to your death, the strength to your weakness, I am your opposite and I am your end."

Ammit listened to the speech and laughed. "My, my, don't we have an exalted view of ourselves today? You're new power has made you cocky again."

"Perhaps," Akira said evenly, "but there is a difference this time. This time I have more than enough power to back up my confidence."

In an instant, the Saiyan was in front of the evil alien, whose eyes grew wide as Akira's fist slammed into his stomach, doubling him over and then an uppercut sent him rocketing through the air. After only a few second, Ammit was sent flying towards the ground as the powerful young warrior appeared behind him and landed a vicious spinning kick.

The Dark Lord was just beginning to regain control of his flight when Akira appeared below him and hit him with another powerful kick sending him high into the air. And then, just as the evil alien reached the apex of his assent, the Saiyan appeared above him, powered up a huge ki blast and fired it point blank into Ammit's chest. It took less than a second for the alien to slam into the ground, creating an enormous crater.

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After watching spellbound as Akira ascended, Pan and Gohan had hurried back to the rest of the Z-Fighters, anxious to hear their feelings on the fight.

When they arrived, the other warriors from earth were not in a very talkative mood as all but Vegeta were simply staring slack jawed into the sky. The Saiyan Prince was wearing a proud smile, no doubt reveling in the fact that the Saiyan race had once again proven its ability to overcome any challenge.

"So, what do we call this one? Just 'Super Saiyan Five' or does it get something a bit more exciting this time?" Krillin asked without taking his eyes off of the transformed Saiyan. Any response from the rest of the group was cut off as Akira's speech reached their ears.

When the young man was done speaking, Trunks began to chuckle. "Hey Pan, I think your boyfriend could give Goku a run for his money in the over-the- top-speech department."

Pan stiffened slightly at his words and then laughed uncomfortably, "Uh, yeah..."

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After nearly a full minute of lying at the bottom of the hole, Ammit slowly stirred and then painfully climbed to his feet. He shook his head, trying to silence the ringing in his ears, and climbed out of the crater, still holding his sword.

"Well, it took you long enough," Akira said smoothly. He was sitting on the ground and reclining against a small boulder with his arms behind his head as though he had been relaxing on a nice quiet day. "I was starting to get bored, but I didn't want to wake you. You looked like you could use the rest."

Ammit was too stunned at the sudden development to come up with any sort of response. As impossible as it seemed, this young warrior, little more than a child, was now stronger than the unbeatable Dark Lord. The alien ground his teeth as the realization hit him.

'I won't let this boy humiliate me,' he vowed, 'The prophets told me that no one could defeat me and they were never wrong. I just have to find some sort of weakness in this fool's armor.'

With a scream of rage he powered up and charged the still sitting young man. The black blade whistled through the air and split the rock Akira had been leaning against in two, but again, the only part of the Super Saiyan that he managed to hit was the after-image. He turned to look for Akira and was greeted by a powerful punch that caused him to stumble back a few steps, blood running down his face from the two slits that marked his nose.

Again Ammit rushed forward and swung his mighty sword; again he missed and recieved a blow to the face.

"Humiliating, isn't it?" Akira taunted as another off target attack was answered with a punch to the back of the head. "Are you enjoying the helplessness? The frustration of knowing you are completely outclassed against a superior opponent." Another swing, another punch.

"Shut up!" Ammit roared as the blade came down again.

This time Akira didn't disappear. Instead, his hand shot up and caught the sword as it came down at him. Blood began to trickle down his arm and the sent of burnt flesh rose into the air as the red aura surrounding the black blade grew larger and more powerful.

"You fool; you should have known your own limitations. You aren't nearly as powerful as you think," Ammit said with a sneer. Akira did not let go of the blade and his face showed no sign that he even felt it biting into his hand. The Dark Lord brought even more energy out of the sword as he continued to push down with all of his might, hoping to slice completely through the young man's hand. Thin wisps of grey smoke was now rising from the young man's hand and a small amount of pain could be seen in his face, but still he refused to release his grip on the dark blade.

"Is that all this thing has?" Akira asked with a steady voice. "Come on now, if you want to win, you have to go all out."

Ammit didn't answer, but the energy surrounding the blade erupted into an inferno. The Saiyan's hand was now shaking and he bared his teeth as he fought against the power of the sword, but he did not pull away from the attack.

"Here, let me show you true power," the young man said his lips spread into a large, confident smile.

A bright aura began to surround Akira's hand. The power from the sword and the power from the Saiyan crackled as they connected and then, much to Ammit's dismay, the red energy from the sword was slowly pushed back by the golden light radiating from the young man's hand; in no time half of the blade was covered in the Saiyan's energy, and then the rest of the sword succumbed to the overwhelming force of Akira's power. Now it was Ammit's hand that shook and smoked as he struggled to maintain his grip. Eventually the pain was too much for him and he released the handle and grabbed at his burnt hand. Akira smiled in triumph as he flipped the sword in the air and caught it by its handle.

"This sword has taken many lives," he said as he examined the finely crafted blade. "In many ways it's just like you: dark, evil, deadly, and..." he placed his free hand on the blade and then snapped the sword over his knee with ease, "breakable."

Ammit gasped as the Saiyan tossed the ruined blade to the ground. That sword had been with him for as long as he could remember, a family treasure passed from king to king on his home world since before history was recorded. He had thought it indestructible, but now, after watching his enemy snap it like a twig, it was gone. This young warrior was stronger than him, there was no denying it now, but even the most powerful of all foes have a weakness.

The Dark Lord looked around for a moment and then his eyes settled on a dark haired girl standing next to her father and friends far below. He should have known that she would survive, no doubt thanks to one of those senzu beans, but that made the plan now forming in his mind even better.

He turned back to Akira and snarled, "You will regret this insult!" He charged up a small ball of ki between his hands and threw it at the young warrior. Akira raised his arm to swat the weak blast away, but just as he was about to, Ammit brought his hands together and the energy ball exploded with a brilliant flash.

Akira closed his watering eyes as the light hit him, blinding him momentarily. He expected the Dark Lord to attack him while he couldn't see, but the attack never came. As soon as he was able to see he scanned the surrounding area and quickly located his enemy.

'What is he doing?' the Saiyan asked himself. His eyes traced a long Ammit's path and then his heart seemed to skip a beat. "Pan..."

He couldn't believe that she was still alive, he'd been so focused on Ammit that he hadn't even considered that there might still have been a senzu bean left to save her with. Akira shifted his gaze back to the Dark Lord and then his eyes widened in fear. Black tendrils of energy shot out of the evil alien's hand and raced towards the Z-Fighters who didn't have time to react to the unexpected attack.

The Saiyan's fingers were at his forehead before he even realized what he was planning on doing. In an instant he was gone.

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Vegeta, Pan, Gohan and the rest of the Z-Fighters were watching the battle with a growing sense of hope when suddenly Ammit was right on top of them. Before they could even look surprised, the black, energy-sucking cords shot from the Dark Lord's hands. A moment before the tendrils hit, Akira appeared in front of them; the dark energy struck him and immediately sunk deep into his flesh. Akira cried out in pain as his power began to slowly drain from his body forming a white sphere of energy around Ammit, who cackled evilly.

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A/N: Okay, so I learned a very important lesson about making predictions this last week. Never do it. I know I said that this story only had three chapters left about three chapters ago and that it would be finished and posted shortly after last weekend, but now I am forced to retract that. I am ALMOST done and I THINK there is just the next chapter and an epilogue, but I won't say for sure anymore. Sorry about the long wait on this chapter, I wrote it several times, but just couldn't get it to sound quite right until this morning. I'm hoping that the rest of the chapters won't be quite as hard as this one was. Anyway, what did you guys think of SSJ5 or how about Akira's little speech? I looked at the picture online of the supposed SSJ5, but it just didn't look the way I thought it should, so I modified it a little (I actually copied it onto my computer, spent an hour removing the color from Goku's hair and fur with MS Paint, and then printed it out and colored it in the way I liked it). Well, once again, thanks for being patient with me and for reading this chapter, I hope you all enjoyed it. Please remember to review.

Toni the Mink: I read your review and thought 'what is she talking about? I know how to spell Toni. Then I went and looked at my last chapter and felt really bad. I'm so sorry I misspelled your name; I promise it won't happen again.

Nasuren: I don't really see Goku as an idiot during fights; in everyday life absolutely, but not when he's fighting (usually). For the most part, it's just Gotenks and Vegeta that are overconfident to the point of stupidity. Really Akira's personality isn't too similar to Goku's, mostly it's just his strength.

PanBraSaiyan: Hopefully you're a little happier with Pan's situation now. I needed her to be hurt to push Akira over the edge.

Nadz: I'm glad you liked the desperation in the last chapter, I tried really hard to get that feel across, I'm glad I succeeded.

Draco the Destroyer: I didn't think you were being mean, so no worries.