Chapter 54: Sanity Lost, Victory Gained
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Pan had been watching Akira and Ammit's battle with an ever growing sense of hope, it had seemed that things were finally looking up for the warriors of Earth, and then in the blink of an eye Ammit was only a few feet away from them, black energy tentacles shooting forward. She could see the attack coming, but either it had some sort of immobilizing effect or she was simply too surprised by the attack to get out of the way as the energy sucking technique sped towards her.
Suddenly Akira was in between Ammit and the rest of the Z-Fighters, Pan didn't even have time to cry out a warning before the dark cords buried themselves into his flesh and began their deadly work.
Akira screamed in pain and was nearly driven to his knees as white energy shot from his chest and began to form a sphere around the Dark Lord. The sight of her friend sacrificing himself drove a knife into Pan's heart; she refused to let the young man die because of her again. Glaring at Ammit, she powered up to Super Saiyan and prepared to once again attack the evil alien.
{Stop} Akira's voice rang inside her head and she looked back at him. The young man's face was pale and Pan could see that it was full of agony, but he was looking right at her and shaking his head. And then, using a deep reserve of strength, he straightened up and turned his attention back to the Dark Lord who was still being bathed in white energy.
Akira slowly reached his hands up, gripped the tentacles connecting him to Ammit, and ripped them out of his chest, throwing them away from him. The cords disintegrated the moment they lost contact with the young man and the sphere surrounding the Dark Lord faded.
Akira fell to his hands and knees, breathing hard while sweat dripped off his face. After a moment, he climbed back to his feet and looked over his shoulder at the Z-Fighters.
"Do not interfere in this fight no matter what happens," he commanded sternly.
"But—" Pan started to protest.
Akira's face twisted with anger as he yelled, "No! This is my fight and mine alone. I will fight Ammit until one of us is dead, but unless I fall, do nothing. It's my fault he's become this strong, my fault that he's still alive," the young warrior glanced at Pan and his face softened slightly, "and my fault that some of you have already been hurt. I won't let him harm another one of you while there is still life in my body." He turned away from them and walked towards the Dark Lord without another word.
Pan again opened her mouth to call out to him, wanting to force her friend to see the foolishness of fighting this battle alone after being weakened by Ammit's last attack, but her father placed a hand on her shoulder and shook his head. The young woman scowled and looked at the ground, vowing that she would not wait for her friend's death before stepping in if she thought that he needed help.
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"You know, in all these long years that I have lived, you are the first to escape from that technique," Ammit said from the air as Akira slowly walked towards him. "I guess I shouldn't be surprised anymore, you have continuously shown yourself to be far superior to any opponent I have ever faced," he let out a soft chuckle as though enjoying an amusing memory. "It's almost saddens me to have to destroy such an amazing warrior, but I suppose it would impossible to trust you after all of this...a pity really."
Akira looked up at him, "I think you're getting a little a head of yourself, this fight is far from over and I don't think you have enough power to kill me."
"Well, that's a rather foolish thing to say, now isn't it? Neither of us can feel the other's power, but you have just had a good deal of yours drained, while I have only grown stronger. I am even more powerful now than I was before those pathetic kais imprisoned me."
The Saiyan studied Ammit for a moment. The alien did indeed seem to be stronger, he was definitely bigger and the muscles in his arms and chest seemed slightly larger.
Akira shrugged, "You might be stronger, but it won't matter. The power you absorbed was only a fraction of my true strength; it won't be enough to tip the scales in your favor."
Ammit was silent for a moment as he considered the statement, his eyes locked onto those of the young man as he tried to read the Saiyan's mind. After several seconds, he still could not tell if Akira was lying; somehow, either intentionally or by accident, the Saiyan was able to bury those thoughts too far down.
Ammit scowled and said, "I think you're bluffing."
"It's possible; I might be bluffing," Akira smiled, "It's conceivable that the reason I haven't attacked you yet is because I barely have the strength to stand." His body suddenly began to glow and the Dark Lord's eyes widened in surprise. The Saiyan shot into the sky and his fist smashed into the powerful alien's face sending Ammit flying back several feet, "Or, perhaps I have the strength after all."
The blow was not enough to even daze the evil warlord; Ammit immediately flew towards Akira and drove a knee into the young man's stomach, doubling him over and then brought both fists down upon his back. As the Saiyan sped towards the ground, he did a small flip and landed on his feet, creating a small crater which he quickly leapt out of as the Dark Lord fired a large ki blast at him.
Akira headed straight for Ammit and the two disappeared as they sped along the battlefield, punching, kicking and firing ki blasts.
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Pan growled in frustration as she tried to watch the fight; Akira and Ammit where both moving too fast for her to really see anything other than an occasional snippet when one or the other of them stood still for a couple of seconds. From what she could see, both fighters seemed to be taking quite a beating.
"Can you see anything?" the demi-Saiyan whispered to her father.
"Probably not much more than you; they can both hide their power, so it's impossible to lock onto them. The only time I can see anything is if they use ki blasts or stop moving. I think it's fairly even so far, and both of them look like they're bleeding pretty badly."
Vegeta nodded his head in agreement, "Yes, this fight is a draw at the moment, but Akira will win."
"Why do you say that?" Gohan asked curiously.
"Haven't you noticed the similarities between Kakkorot and Akira yet?" the Saiyan Prince asked with a slightly raised eyebrow. "Besides the physical and personality similarities, of which there are several, both seem to have the ability to ascend to a new level when facing a superior opponent. I have little doubt that the boy will emerge victorious just as Kakkorot always did."
Pan's eyes widened momentarily and then she quickly looked away, but not before noticing the knowing smirk that Vegeta flashed her direction. Her father continued the discussion with the older Saiyan, but Pan didn't want to deal with that whole mess at the moment. There would be time for that when Akira was no longer in danger.
Suddenly, both her thoughts and her father's conversation came to a halt as a distant mountain crumbled. The Z-Fighters strained their eyes and found Akira hovering above the rubble, waiting patiently for his enemy to reappear.
Pan smiled, 'Maybe there really isn't anything to worry about,' she thought.
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Akira was breathing heavily as he waited for Ammit to climb out of the ruined mountain. Under better circumstances he would have just fired a ki blast and forced the Dark Lord out, but for the moment he didn't have the energy to spare for such an attack nor did he think that it would finish off the evil alien anyway. So he waited, greedily sucking in air and trying to keep from succumbing to the dizzying sensation that accompanied considerable blood loss.
He only got a few seconds of rest before the rocks shifted and Ammit pulled himself free. The two enemies stared at each other as the Dark Lord slowly rose into the air until he was even with the young Saiyan.
The two stared at each other for a long time and then Akira slammed his fist into the warlord's stomach. He followed it up with an uppercut to the face which sent blood flying out of Ammit's mouth as his head snapped back under the force of the blow. The damage must not have been too severe because a second later the Dark Lord threw a right cross that caught the Saiyan in the temple and then a left hook that opened a deep gash above the young man's eye. Akira immediately closed his injured eye as blood flowed over it and then drove his fist into the evil alien's face, slightly ripping one of the nose slits. There was a momentary pause and then both fighters completely abandoned any sort of strategy or defense and began to pummel each other as hard and as fast as they could, trading blow for blow, blood for blood. They simply wanted to wear down and punish the other before their own bodies gave out.
After several long minutes of this, Akira misfired on a punch and overextended himself. Ammit wasted no time in bringing both of his fists down hard upon the back of the Super Saiyan's head and the young warrior was sent crashing to the ground kicking up dust and debris as he hit.
It took awhile, but eventually an exhausted Akira was able to climb out of the deep crater his impact had created. The moment he was completely out of the hole, he collapsed to the ground, gasping for air as blood flowed freely from the numerous large wounds covering his body. He gingerly opened his one good eye and found himself staring at a black boot.
The Saiyan looked up at Ammit who was grinning down at him, enjoying his apparent victory. The alien's silvery hair was matted with dark red blood, one of his eyes was nearly swollen shut while the other had a crazed glint in it, and several of his sharp, shark-like teeth were missing or chipped. He was breathing heavily and didn't seem to be very steady on his feet, but that still left him one up on Akira, who doubted he could stand at the moment.
The young man smiled weakly, wincing slightly at the twinge of pain that the action caused, "Sorry about that, I hope I didn't keep you waiting too long." The Dark Lord's grin faded and his cheek began to twitch uncontrollably.
"Do you think this is some sort of game?" the powerful alien sneered, "You're very life has become an affront to my honor, every breath you take is like a slap to my face. You should have been dead many times over, but you keep coming back, keep getting up and driving me back. I am Ammit, in my name millions have been enslaved and countless more sent to the grave. The kais tremble at the sight of my awesome power; in all the universe there is none who can match my power...except you...a mere child. Against you I have used all of my power and found myself lacking; against you I have beaten and broken, bleeding for the first time since I was a small boy; against you I have been humiliated, but now...now you are mine. There will be no coming back, no miraculous transformations, no last minute saves. No, this time I will bury you permanently."
The Dark Lord reached down grabbed Akira by the neck, roughly pulling him to his feet so the two were face to face. Now that their skin was touching, Ammit could feel the young man's power, he smiled. "So, there is a limit to how well you can mask your energy. It feels like you're pretty much spent, too bad, I'm still going strong."
The alien's hand shot forward and sliced deeply into Akira's shoulder. The young man screamed in pain, but did nothing to defend himself. Ammit smiled and let go of the Saiyan's neck; Akira dropped to his knees. "I don't know what it is about you monkey, but the pleasure I get when you are in pain is indescribable," the evil alien said as he drove his knee into his enemy's face, knocking the warrior from earth flat on his back.
Akira's eyes were closed, his body was a covered in wounds, and a shallow pool of blood was beginning to form under him; the only evidence that he was still clinging to life was the slight rise and fall of his chest.
Ammit stepped over him and looked down, the crazed look still shining in his eye. "I don't know if you can even hear this anymore, but I just can't resist taking one more shot at hurting you; so I want you to know that I have decided not to kill your mate. While I would love to get her to join my ranks, I think that after I slaughter her friends and family and lay waste to this planet she will be less than willing to accept such an honor. So instead, I am going to let her be the first member of my new harem." Akira's face twitched and the Dark Lord smiled in triumph, "Yes, I think there is an innocence about her that I will very much enjoy taking." Ammit chuckled, "You see now what I meant when this battle first began, don't you? This fights outcome was written on the day of my birth when the prophets told my father that no being born in this universe would ever be able to defeat me. And now...goodbye."
The evil alien raised his fist and then brought it rushing down at the Saiyan's unprotected face, but at the last second, Akira opened his eyes and, with strength and speed fueled only by a burning hatred, caught the fist. The Dark Lord's eye opened wide with surprise.
"This might just be playing with semantics," Akira said in a weak voice, "but I didn't come into the universe through birth." He threw his other hand up, channeled all of his strength and energy into it and screamed, "SEI KAZE!!!"
The enormous, red ki blast hit Ammit in the face and exploded. There was no way he could have blocked the attack and even if there was, it probably wouldn't have mattered. The force of the blast sent the warlord high into the air and then crashing down with an unpleasant crunch; a second later there was a faint flash of light as Akira's hair returned to his normal messy black, his fur receded, and his muscles shrunk.
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When Pan saw Akira at Ammit's mercy she had shot forward, ignoring her father's cries for her to stop. There was no way she was going to sit back and watch her friend die without trying to do something. She was less than a hundred feet away when the enormous explosion threw her to the ground. It took the young Saiyan a moment to get back to her feet, and when she did, the battlefield was completely still; the two fighters were both lying on their backs only a few feet apart. Neither was moving.
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Akira wanted nothing more than to remain in beautiful, restful oblivion, but even as he hovered somewhere between consciousness and unconsciousness he could see the burning red eyes of the Dark Lord. The young Saiyan's mind began to show him his darkest fears as images of dead Z-Fighters floated before his closed eyes. Vegeta, Gohan, Krillin and the rest all dead, their bodies horribly mutilated, but then came Pan, very much alive, locked in a passionate embrace with that which the young man hated most: Ammit.
The wounded warrior struggled to open his eyes, and then with a groan he climbed to his feet. A short distance away, the Dark Lord, now in his original form, was also slowly standing up. Seeing his enemy on his feet brought the images that his semiconscious mind had produced back to him, especially the one with Pan.
Akira snapped. Nothing mattered to him anymore, not the kais, not the universe or the earth, not the Z-Fighters and their families, not even Pan; the only thing he cared about was feeding the blood lust that was cursing through his veins.
With a roar he forced his body to move, the Saiyan strode purposefully towards the surprised warlord. Ammit took a swing at him, but Akira blocked it and smashed his fist into the Dark Lord's face. The evil alien staggerd back a few paces, recovered and then swung again at the advancing Saiyan. This time that attack connected, but it barely slowed Akira who didn't seem to even feel the crushing blow that opened up another gash on his face. The young man no longer felt the pain, no longer felt the tearing of his flesh, the spilling of his blood or the breaking of his bones. The only thing he knew was his hatred for the creature before him. Akira took a few quick steps to build momentum and then tackled the evil alien. The two warriors rolled in the dirt, each trying to gain the upper hand.
Finally, Akira managed to pin the warlord; holding him down with one hand and then slamming his fist into Ammit's face several times. There was a wet squishing noise as dark blood splashed on the ground; the ancient alien's face was barely recognizable now. The Saiyan looked down with satisfaction at his handiwork, thinking it was finally finished.
Then a raspy, gargling whisper reached his ears, "M..er...cy."
Akira couldn't believe what he had just heard, "What?"
"Ple..ase...M...erc...y."
"You dare ask me for mercy?" the Saiyan asked, rage flowing through him. "After what you've done to me; after what you've planned to do to my friends?"
"You...have de...feated me...One Who...Was Not B...orn. That is...wor...se than death...pl..ease show...mer...cy."
Akira's heart was racing and his eyes seemed to cloud over as he said, "Mercy can only be given to one who is weaker," an evil smile spread over his face as he repeated the words that Ammit had spoken as he sucked the life from Runihura, "And if there's one thing I hate, it's weakness." He brought his fist down hard, over and over; in seconds his body was covered in his enemy's gore and a blood lust cursed through his veins, his punches continued to rain down upon the Dark Lord without pausing.
And then something latched onto his wrist and stopped him mid- swing; confusion passed over his face as he again tried to bring his fist down, but found that he could not. He looked back and found Pan holding tightly to his arm, with a scowl and a quick jerk; he pulled his arm free and returned his attention to Ammit.
A hand touched his shoulder softly.
"Get away from me!" Akira screamed, "I don't need a weakling's help to finish this, I don't need anything." He tried to backhand the annoyance away from him, but she easily dodged out of the way. The crazed Saiyan turned back to his nemesis, ready to turn what remained of the alien's face into a thin paste with his fists, and even then he probably wouldn't stop swinging.
{Akira...} the voice cut through his rage and insanity like a ray of sunlight through the clouds. He looked at Pan and saw the hurt in her eyes, looked down at the bloody mess that he'd been pounding on, and then looked at his gore-covered hands. Without another word he stood, took two steps away from the body of Ammit, fell to his knees, and began to cry.
He cried because of what he had become, he cried because of what he had done to his helpless enemy, he cried because the intense emotions of the battle were too much for him, and he cried most especially because of what he had said to the woman that he knew he loved when she had tried to help him. As the tears streamed down his blood covered face and the sobs racked his wounded, broken body, two slender arms gently pulled him into a warm, comforting embrace.
The two Saiyans didn't move for a long time, as the young man, who was arguably the strongest fighter in the universe, grieved over what he had become and clung desperately to the woman who was slowly healing his wounded soul with her presence and her love.
After what seemed to be an eternity, but was actually closer to five minutes, the two young warriors became aware of their friends and family around them.
There was a moment of silence as no one knew quite what to say, and then Vegeta smirked and said, "Well, are we just going to sit around staring at each other or shall we head home and eat?" The rest of the group smiled and nodded.
Pan and Akira got to their feet, though the young man had to lean heavily upon Pan for support in order to remain upright. She looked him and smiled, there was still a definite sense of sorrow in his eyes, but he managed to weakly smile back. Pan wiped some of the blood near her friend's mouth away and then leaned in and kissed him softly on the lips. Akira's eye went wide for a moment and then he surrendered to the kiss.
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Gohan, Krillin and Trunks, who was carrying the still unconscious Goten, were standing only a few feet away when Pan leaned in and kissed Akira. Gohan's eyes had narrowed just slightly at the sight, clearly not thrilled to see his baby girl kissing a boy; Krillin glanced at the Saiyan's face and then quickly looked for somewhere else to be, he noticed Trunks' sword lying on the ground a short distance beyond where the body of Ammit was lying and ran to get it.
"Well, she could have done worse," Trunks said with a chuckle as he clapped Gohan on the shoulder.
The scholar took a deep breath and then replied, "I guess you're right...she could have gone after someone like you."
The lavender haired man flashed a big smile and said, "See? You just have to look for the silver lining to every rain cloud." The two friends dissolved into laughter, not noticing the thin black tentacles, slowly making their way towards the happy group.
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Akira felt a prickle on his neck and he reluctantly broke away from this kiss, looking around in confusion.
"What is it?" Pan whispered softly.
The young man continued scanning the area, not sure what he was looking for. Finally he shrugged, "I guess it was nothing." As he began to look back at her, he noticed a slight movement out of the corner of his eye; he turned and felt his heart jump into his throat.
A black tendril of energy was stealthily making its way towards the feet of Vegeta who was speaking with Uubu. Akira glanced at the rest of the Z- Fighters and found similar tentacles making their way towards each of them; he followed the one near his own feet back to its source.
Ammit had pulled himself to a crouching position and was smiling evilly through the mess of bloodied flesh that covered his face.
Suddenly the energy absorbing cords shot forward, Akira tried to call out a warning, but his body seemed frozen. He watched in horror as the tentacle raced towards him, and then he closed his eye and braced himself for the pain that he knew was coming.
It never came. After a moment, the Saiyan warrior opened his eyes and looked in wonder at the sight before him; the black cork had stopped less than an inch away from his chest and was slowly disintegrating. His eyes traced it back to where Ammit was standing. The evil alien had a look of surprise and pain on his face, fresh blood was running out of his mouth and his chest was gushing blood around a sharp silvery point that stuck out of it.
The shiny object retracted into the Dark Lord's chest as the glowing red eyes dimmed and then he toppled forward, revealing a wide eyed Krillin holding Trunks' sword.
There was a long silence as everyone stared at the former monk and then down at the lifeless body of Ammit.
No one said a word until Vegeta began to chuckle and said, "So, in the end the mightiest tyrant this universe has ever known was killed by a weak old man!" He let out a hearty laugh and eventually the others joined in, though Krillin still seemed to take a slight exception at the 'weak, old man' comment.
When the laughter died down, Gohan and Trunks, supporting Goten; Pan holding up Akira; and the rest of the Z-Fighters leapt into the air and made their way back to their anxious friends and family.
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A/N: Part of Akira's conversation with Ammit during their battle came more or less from The Princess Bride (if you've seen the movie no doubt you caught it pretty easily) and the whole "I wasn't born thing" very closely parallels Shakespeare's Macbeth (it was just too sweet of a line to leave out, though I seriously considered cutting it).
A/N: So, what did you think? Were you surprised by who ended up killing Ammit? I know I was when I wrote it down in my outline. At first I wasn't so sure I liked the idea, but the more I thought about it the more it seemed to fit. I mean, how many huge fights has Krillin been in where all he does is get beat up and then Goku, Gohan, or another Saiyan saves him? I think he deserves to get his moment in the spot light. A special thanks goes out to Anouk who put the idea in my head (though at the time I had no intention of using it). Well, just one last wrap-up chapter and then I'm completely done!
Trugeta: Hey, thanks for reviewing! I'm really glad that you liked it so far and that you thought the SSJ5 form looked alright (it took me forever to decide on what it was going to look like).
Toni the Mink: I'm glad that you like the fight scenes, they were honestly the only easy part about writing this story (I don't think I'm nearly as good at writing the emotional stuff).
Megume: Sorry, no evil Gotenks in this story, that would have made this story even longer and I don't think I could have handled that.
PanBraSaiyan: I'm glad you caught the Goku reference there; I was trying to give it a similar flare without using exactly the same words, but he said so many cool things to Frieza that I just had to use the part about being the light. It seemed to flow pretty well since Ammit was called the Dark Lord.
Nadz: I'll explain the whole wound not healing thing in the final chapter.
Everyone else: I'm glad that you all liked SSJ5, hopefully you liked this last chapter too! Thanks for all of your reviews; I should have the epilogue out by the end of the weekend I think (hope).
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Pan had been watching Akira and Ammit's battle with an ever growing sense of hope, it had seemed that things were finally looking up for the warriors of Earth, and then in the blink of an eye Ammit was only a few feet away from them, black energy tentacles shooting forward. She could see the attack coming, but either it had some sort of immobilizing effect or she was simply too surprised by the attack to get out of the way as the energy sucking technique sped towards her.
Suddenly Akira was in between Ammit and the rest of the Z-Fighters, Pan didn't even have time to cry out a warning before the dark cords buried themselves into his flesh and began their deadly work.
Akira screamed in pain and was nearly driven to his knees as white energy shot from his chest and began to form a sphere around the Dark Lord. The sight of her friend sacrificing himself drove a knife into Pan's heart; she refused to let the young man die because of her again. Glaring at Ammit, she powered up to Super Saiyan and prepared to once again attack the evil alien.
{Stop} Akira's voice rang inside her head and she looked back at him. The young man's face was pale and Pan could see that it was full of agony, but he was looking right at her and shaking his head. And then, using a deep reserve of strength, he straightened up and turned his attention back to the Dark Lord who was still being bathed in white energy.
Akira slowly reached his hands up, gripped the tentacles connecting him to Ammit, and ripped them out of his chest, throwing them away from him. The cords disintegrated the moment they lost contact with the young man and the sphere surrounding the Dark Lord faded.
Akira fell to his hands and knees, breathing hard while sweat dripped off his face. After a moment, he climbed back to his feet and looked over his shoulder at the Z-Fighters.
"Do not interfere in this fight no matter what happens," he commanded sternly.
"But—" Pan started to protest.
Akira's face twisted with anger as he yelled, "No! This is my fight and mine alone. I will fight Ammit until one of us is dead, but unless I fall, do nothing. It's my fault he's become this strong, my fault that he's still alive," the young warrior glanced at Pan and his face softened slightly, "and my fault that some of you have already been hurt. I won't let him harm another one of you while there is still life in my body." He turned away from them and walked towards the Dark Lord without another word.
Pan again opened her mouth to call out to him, wanting to force her friend to see the foolishness of fighting this battle alone after being weakened by Ammit's last attack, but her father placed a hand on her shoulder and shook his head. The young woman scowled and looked at the ground, vowing that she would not wait for her friend's death before stepping in if she thought that he needed help.
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"You know, in all these long years that I have lived, you are the first to escape from that technique," Ammit said from the air as Akira slowly walked towards him. "I guess I shouldn't be surprised anymore, you have continuously shown yourself to be far superior to any opponent I have ever faced," he let out a soft chuckle as though enjoying an amusing memory. "It's almost saddens me to have to destroy such an amazing warrior, but I suppose it would impossible to trust you after all of this...a pity really."
Akira looked up at him, "I think you're getting a little a head of yourself, this fight is far from over and I don't think you have enough power to kill me."
"Well, that's a rather foolish thing to say, now isn't it? Neither of us can feel the other's power, but you have just had a good deal of yours drained, while I have only grown stronger. I am even more powerful now than I was before those pathetic kais imprisoned me."
The Saiyan studied Ammit for a moment. The alien did indeed seem to be stronger, he was definitely bigger and the muscles in his arms and chest seemed slightly larger.
Akira shrugged, "You might be stronger, but it won't matter. The power you absorbed was only a fraction of my true strength; it won't be enough to tip the scales in your favor."
Ammit was silent for a moment as he considered the statement, his eyes locked onto those of the young man as he tried to read the Saiyan's mind. After several seconds, he still could not tell if Akira was lying; somehow, either intentionally or by accident, the Saiyan was able to bury those thoughts too far down.
Ammit scowled and said, "I think you're bluffing."
"It's possible; I might be bluffing," Akira smiled, "It's conceivable that the reason I haven't attacked you yet is because I barely have the strength to stand." His body suddenly began to glow and the Dark Lord's eyes widened in surprise. The Saiyan shot into the sky and his fist smashed into the powerful alien's face sending Ammit flying back several feet, "Or, perhaps I have the strength after all."
The blow was not enough to even daze the evil warlord; Ammit immediately flew towards Akira and drove a knee into the young man's stomach, doubling him over and then brought both fists down upon his back. As the Saiyan sped towards the ground, he did a small flip and landed on his feet, creating a small crater which he quickly leapt out of as the Dark Lord fired a large ki blast at him.
Akira headed straight for Ammit and the two disappeared as they sped along the battlefield, punching, kicking and firing ki blasts.
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Pan growled in frustration as she tried to watch the fight; Akira and Ammit where both moving too fast for her to really see anything other than an occasional snippet when one or the other of them stood still for a couple of seconds. From what she could see, both fighters seemed to be taking quite a beating.
"Can you see anything?" the demi-Saiyan whispered to her father.
"Probably not much more than you; they can both hide their power, so it's impossible to lock onto them. The only time I can see anything is if they use ki blasts or stop moving. I think it's fairly even so far, and both of them look like they're bleeding pretty badly."
Vegeta nodded his head in agreement, "Yes, this fight is a draw at the moment, but Akira will win."
"Why do you say that?" Gohan asked curiously.
"Haven't you noticed the similarities between Kakkorot and Akira yet?" the Saiyan Prince asked with a slightly raised eyebrow. "Besides the physical and personality similarities, of which there are several, both seem to have the ability to ascend to a new level when facing a superior opponent. I have little doubt that the boy will emerge victorious just as Kakkorot always did."
Pan's eyes widened momentarily and then she quickly looked away, but not before noticing the knowing smirk that Vegeta flashed her direction. Her father continued the discussion with the older Saiyan, but Pan didn't want to deal with that whole mess at the moment. There would be time for that when Akira was no longer in danger.
Suddenly, both her thoughts and her father's conversation came to a halt as a distant mountain crumbled. The Z-Fighters strained their eyes and found Akira hovering above the rubble, waiting patiently for his enemy to reappear.
Pan smiled, 'Maybe there really isn't anything to worry about,' she thought.
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Akira was breathing heavily as he waited for Ammit to climb out of the ruined mountain. Under better circumstances he would have just fired a ki blast and forced the Dark Lord out, but for the moment he didn't have the energy to spare for such an attack nor did he think that it would finish off the evil alien anyway. So he waited, greedily sucking in air and trying to keep from succumbing to the dizzying sensation that accompanied considerable blood loss.
He only got a few seconds of rest before the rocks shifted and Ammit pulled himself free. The two enemies stared at each other as the Dark Lord slowly rose into the air until he was even with the young Saiyan.
The two stared at each other for a long time and then Akira slammed his fist into the warlord's stomach. He followed it up with an uppercut to the face which sent blood flying out of Ammit's mouth as his head snapped back under the force of the blow. The damage must not have been too severe because a second later the Dark Lord threw a right cross that caught the Saiyan in the temple and then a left hook that opened a deep gash above the young man's eye. Akira immediately closed his injured eye as blood flowed over it and then drove his fist into the evil alien's face, slightly ripping one of the nose slits. There was a momentary pause and then both fighters completely abandoned any sort of strategy or defense and began to pummel each other as hard and as fast as they could, trading blow for blow, blood for blood. They simply wanted to wear down and punish the other before their own bodies gave out.
After several long minutes of this, Akira misfired on a punch and overextended himself. Ammit wasted no time in bringing both of his fists down hard upon the back of the Super Saiyan's head and the young warrior was sent crashing to the ground kicking up dust and debris as he hit.
It took awhile, but eventually an exhausted Akira was able to climb out of the deep crater his impact had created. The moment he was completely out of the hole, he collapsed to the ground, gasping for air as blood flowed freely from the numerous large wounds covering his body. He gingerly opened his one good eye and found himself staring at a black boot.
The Saiyan looked up at Ammit who was grinning down at him, enjoying his apparent victory. The alien's silvery hair was matted with dark red blood, one of his eyes was nearly swollen shut while the other had a crazed glint in it, and several of his sharp, shark-like teeth were missing or chipped. He was breathing heavily and didn't seem to be very steady on his feet, but that still left him one up on Akira, who doubted he could stand at the moment.
The young man smiled weakly, wincing slightly at the twinge of pain that the action caused, "Sorry about that, I hope I didn't keep you waiting too long." The Dark Lord's grin faded and his cheek began to twitch uncontrollably.
"Do you think this is some sort of game?" the powerful alien sneered, "You're very life has become an affront to my honor, every breath you take is like a slap to my face. You should have been dead many times over, but you keep coming back, keep getting up and driving me back. I am Ammit, in my name millions have been enslaved and countless more sent to the grave. The kais tremble at the sight of my awesome power; in all the universe there is none who can match my power...except you...a mere child. Against you I have used all of my power and found myself lacking; against you I have beaten and broken, bleeding for the first time since I was a small boy; against you I have been humiliated, but now...now you are mine. There will be no coming back, no miraculous transformations, no last minute saves. No, this time I will bury you permanently."
The Dark Lord reached down grabbed Akira by the neck, roughly pulling him to his feet so the two were face to face. Now that their skin was touching, Ammit could feel the young man's power, he smiled. "So, there is a limit to how well you can mask your energy. It feels like you're pretty much spent, too bad, I'm still going strong."
The alien's hand shot forward and sliced deeply into Akira's shoulder. The young man screamed in pain, but did nothing to defend himself. Ammit smiled and let go of the Saiyan's neck; Akira dropped to his knees. "I don't know what it is about you monkey, but the pleasure I get when you are in pain is indescribable," the evil alien said as he drove his knee into his enemy's face, knocking the warrior from earth flat on his back.
Akira's eyes were closed, his body was a covered in wounds, and a shallow pool of blood was beginning to form under him; the only evidence that he was still clinging to life was the slight rise and fall of his chest.
Ammit stepped over him and looked down, the crazed look still shining in his eye. "I don't know if you can even hear this anymore, but I just can't resist taking one more shot at hurting you; so I want you to know that I have decided not to kill your mate. While I would love to get her to join my ranks, I think that after I slaughter her friends and family and lay waste to this planet she will be less than willing to accept such an honor. So instead, I am going to let her be the first member of my new harem." Akira's face twitched and the Dark Lord smiled in triumph, "Yes, I think there is an innocence about her that I will very much enjoy taking." Ammit chuckled, "You see now what I meant when this battle first began, don't you? This fights outcome was written on the day of my birth when the prophets told my father that no being born in this universe would ever be able to defeat me. And now...goodbye."
The evil alien raised his fist and then brought it rushing down at the Saiyan's unprotected face, but at the last second, Akira opened his eyes and, with strength and speed fueled only by a burning hatred, caught the fist. The Dark Lord's eye opened wide with surprise.
"This might just be playing with semantics," Akira said in a weak voice, "but I didn't come into the universe through birth." He threw his other hand up, channeled all of his strength and energy into it and screamed, "SEI KAZE!!!"
The enormous, red ki blast hit Ammit in the face and exploded. There was no way he could have blocked the attack and even if there was, it probably wouldn't have mattered. The force of the blast sent the warlord high into the air and then crashing down with an unpleasant crunch; a second later there was a faint flash of light as Akira's hair returned to his normal messy black, his fur receded, and his muscles shrunk.
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When Pan saw Akira at Ammit's mercy she had shot forward, ignoring her father's cries for her to stop. There was no way she was going to sit back and watch her friend die without trying to do something. She was less than a hundred feet away when the enormous explosion threw her to the ground. It took the young Saiyan a moment to get back to her feet, and when she did, the battlefield was completely still; the two fighters were both lying on their backs only a few feet apart. Neither was moving.
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Akira wanted nothing more than to remain in beautiful, restful oblivion, but even as he hovered somewhere between consciousness and unconsciousness he could see the burning red eyes of the Dark Lord. The young Saiyan's mind began to show him his darkest fears as images of dead Z-Fighters floated before his closed eyes. Vegeta, Gohan, Krillin and the rest all dead, their bodies horribly mutilated, but then came Pan, very much alive, locked in a passionate embrace with that which the young man hated most: Ammit.
The wounded warrior struggled to open his eyes, and then with a groan he climbed to his feet. A short distance away, the Dark Lord, now in his original form, was also slowly standing up. Seeing his enemy on his feet brought the images that his semiconscious mind had produced back to him, especially the one with Pan.
Akira snapped. Nothing mattered to him anymore, not the kais, not the universe or the earth, not the Z-Fighters and their families, not even Pan; the only thing he cared about was feeding the blood lust that was cursing through his veins.
With a roar he forced his body to move, the Saiyan strode purposefully towards the surprised warlord. Ammit took a swing at him, but Akira blocked it and smashed his fist into the Dark Lord's face. The evil alien staggerd back a few paces, recovered and then swung again at the advancing Saiyan. This time that attack connected, but it barely slowed Akira who didn't seem to even feel the crushing blow that opened up another gash on his face. The young man no longer felt the pain, no longer felt the tearing of his flesh, the spilling of his blood or the breaking of his bones. The only thing he knew was his hatred for the creature before him. Akira took a few quick steps to build momentum and then tackled the evil alien. The two warriors rolled in the dirt, each trying to gain the upper hand.
Finally, Akira managed to pin the warlord; holding him down with one hand and then slamming his fist into Ammit's face several times. There was a wet squishing noise as dark blood splashed on the ground; the ancient alien's face was barely recognizable now. The Saiyan looked down with satisfaction at his handiwork, thinking it was finally finished.
Then a raspy, gargling whisper reached his ears, "M..er...cy."
Akira couldn't believe what he had just heard, "What?"
"Ple..ase...M...erc...y."
"You dare ask me for mercy?" the Saiyan asked, rage flowing through him. "After what you've done to me; after what you've planned to do to my friends?"
"You...have de...feated me...One Who...Was Not B...orn. That is...wor...se than death...pl..ease show...mer...cy."
Akira's heart was racing and his eyes seemed to cloud over as he said, "Mercy can only be given to one who is weaker," an evil smile spread over his face as he repeated the words that Ammit had spoken as he sucked the life from Runihura, "And if there's one thing I hate, it's weakness." He brought his fist down hard, over and over; in seconds his body was covered in his enemy's gore and a blood lust cursed through his veins, his punches continued to rain down upon the Dark Lord without pausing.
And then something latched onto his wrist and stopped him mid- swing; confusion passed over his face as he again tried to bring his fist down, but found that he could not. He looked back and found Pan holding tightly to his arm, with a scowl and a quick jerk; he pulled his arm free and returned his attention to Ammit.
A hand touched his shoulder softly.
"Get away from me!" Akira screamed, "I don't need a weakling's help to finish this, I don't need anything." He tried to backhand the annoyance away from him, but she easily dodged out of the way. The crazed Saiyan turned back to his nemesis, ready to turn what remained of the alien's face into a thin paste with his fists, and even then he probably wouldn't stop swinging.
{Akira...} the voice cut through his rage and insanity like a ray of sunlight through the clouds. He looked at Pan and saw the hurt in her eyes, looked down at the bloody mess that he'd been pounding on, and then looked at his gore-covered hands. Without another word he stood, took two steps away from the body of Ammit, fell to his knees, and began to cry.
He cried because of what he had become, he cried because of what he had done to his helpless enemy, he cried because the intense emotions of the battle were too much for him, and he cried most especially because of what he had said to the woman that he knew he loved when she had tried to help him. As the tears streamed down his blood covered face and the sobs racked his wounded, broken body, two slender arms gently pulled him into a warm, comforting embrace.
The two Saiyans didn't move for a long time, as the young man, who was arguably the strongest fighter in the universe, grieved over what he had become and clung desperately to the woman who was slowly healing his wounded soul with her presence and her love.
After what seemed to be an eternity, but was actually closer to five minutes, the two young warriors became aware of their friends and family around them.
There was a moment of silence as no one knew quite what to say, and then Vegeta smirked and said, "Well, are we just going to sit around staring at each other or shall we head home and eat?" The rest of the group smiled and nodded.
Pan and Akira got to their feet, though the young man had to lean heavily upon Pan for support in order to remain upright. She looked him and smiled, there was still a definite sense of sorrow in his eyes, but he managed to weakly smile back. Pan wiped some of the blood near her friend's mouth away and then leaned in and kissed him softly on the lips. Akira's eye went wide for a moment and then he surrendered to the kiss.
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Gohan, Krillin and Trunks, who was carrying the still unconscious Goten, were standing only a few feet away when Pan leaned in and kissed Akira. Gohan's eyes had narrowed just slightly at the sight, clearly not thrilled to see his baby girl kissing a boy; Krillin glanced at the Saiyan's face and then quickly looked for somewhere else to be, he noticed Trunks' sword lying on the ground a short distance beyond where the body of Ammit was lying and ran to get it.
"Well, she could have done worse," Trunks said with a chuckle as he clapped Gohan on the shoulder.
The scholar took a deep breath and then replied, "I guess you're right...she could have gone after someone like you."
The lavender haired man flashed a big smile and said, "See? You just have to look for the silver lining to every rain cloud." The two friends dissolved into laughter, not noticing the thin black tentacles, slowly making their way towards the happy group.
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Akira felt a prickle on his neck and he reluctantly broke away from this kiss, looking around in confusion.
"What is it?" Pan whispered softly.
The young man continued scanning the area, not sure what he was looking for. Finally he shrugged, "I guess it was nothing." As he began to look back at her, he noticed a slight movement out of the corner of his eye; he turned and felt his heart jump into his throat.
A black tendril of energy was stealthily making its way towards the feet of Vegeta who was speaking with Uubu. Akira glanced at the rest of the Z- Fighters and found similar tentacles making their way towards each of them; he followed the one near his own feet back to its source.
Ammit had pulled himself to a crouching position and was smiling evilly through the mess of bloodied flesh that covered his face.
Suddenly the energy absorbing cords shot forward, Akira tried to call out a warning, but his body seemed frozen. He watched in horror as the tentacle raced towards him, and then he closed his eye and braced himself for the pain that he knew was coming.
It never came. After a moment, the Saiyan warrior opened his eyes and looked in wonder at the sight before him; the black cork had stopped less than an inch away from his chest and was slowly disintegrating. His eyes traced it back to where Ammit was standing. The evil alien had a look of surprise and pain on his face, fresh blood was running out of his mouth and his chest was gushing blood around a sharp silvery point that stuck out of it.
The shiny object retracted into the Dark Lord's chest as the glowing red eyes dimmed and then he toppled forward, revealing a wide eyed Krillin holding Trunks' sword.
There was a long silence as everyone stared at the former monk and then down at the lifeless body of Ammit.
No one said a word until Vegeta began to chuckle and said, "So, in the end the mightiest tyrant this universe has ever known was killed by a weak old man!" He let out a hearty laugh and eventually the others joined in, though Krillin still seemed to take a slight exception at the 'weak, old man' comment.
When the laughter died down, Gohan and Trunks, supporting Goten; Pan holding up Akira; and the rest of the Z-Fighters leapt into the air and made their way back to their anxious friends and family.
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A/N: Part of Akira's conversation with Ammit during their battle came more or less from The Princess Bride (if you've seen the movie no doubt you caught it pretty easily) and the whole "I wasn't born thing" very closely parallels Shakespeare's Macbeth (it was just too sweet of a line to leave out, though I seriously considered cutting it).
A/N: So, what did you think? Were you surprised by who ended up killing Ammit? I know I was when I wrote it down in my outline. At first I wasn't so sure I liked the idea, but the more I thought about it the more it seemed to fit. I mean, how many huge fights has Krillin been in where all he does is get beat up and then Goku, Gohan, or another Saiyan saves him? I think he deserves to get his moment in the spot light. A special thanks goes out to Anouk who put the idea in my head (though at the time I had no intention of using it). Well, just one last wrap-up chapter and then I'm completely done!
Trugeta: Hey, thanks for reviewing! I'm really glad that you liked it so far and that you thought the SSJ5 form looked alright (it took me forever to decide on what it was going to look like).
Toni the Mink: I'm glad that you like the fight scenes, they were honestly the only easy part about writing this story (I don't think I'm nearly as good at writing the emotional stuff).
Megume: Sorry, no evil Gotenks in this story, that would have made this story even longer and I don't think I could have handled that.
PanBraSaiyan: I'm glad you caught the Goku reference there; I was trying to give it a similar flare without using exactly the same words, but he said so many cool things to Frieza that I just had to use the part about being the light. It seemed to flow pretty well since Ammit was called the Dark Lord.
Nadz: I'll explain the whole wound not healing thing in the final chapter.
Everyone else: I'm glad that you all liked SSJ5, hopefully you liked this last chapter too! Thanks for all of your reviews; I should have the epilogue out by the end of the weekend I think (hope).