Author's Note: Okay, yes, I realize that this chapter has been about a million years in the making, but you must believe that it was the fault of my computer, not me. I had through chapter six written and proofread, but unfortunately, the comp I stored them on crashed, and I haven't been able to get it working again. So, re-write time! Enjoy, and thanks for your patience.

Chapter Four:

At first everything was a blur. It was dark where he was, and he was ragingly thirsty. The thirst that was so much more than wanting water, the thirst that cried out from every vein of his being.

Then he heard it. Like a slap in the face, the telepathic scream lanced through his brain.

HELP!!!

His eyes snapped wide instantly, total awareness flooding him. He was in the secret coffin-like panel under the floor of the ship he had stolen from Arda long ago. He had been sleeping. For how long, he didn't know. A week, a month, a decade. Who knew? And right now it didn't even matter.

There was something on his ship. Something that had no business being here. Something very, very strong, by the feel of it. Also very wrong. It was like nothing he had ever felt.

And that had been Arda who had screamed. He was sure of it. After knowing that voice for thousands of years, it would be hard to mistake it.

The panel that opened to let him out of this little chamber would be to slow. In a blaze of power, he blasted out of the floor, moving with supernatural speed. His clothes were still battle worn from the cataclysmic events of the golden moon a decade before, but his eyes were bright blue chips of ice, body tensed and full of power.

The vampire Osiris raced for the fight.

"It's Arda." Kaio-sama said, his face pale, downcast and frightened. "He's being killed, I think."

"What!?" Goku, Vegeta, and Uubu snapped at once. "What do you mean?" Goku grabbed the god by the shoulders. "What's going on!?"

The Kaio said nothing, only stared off into space, as if seeing something that none of them could. Goku was about to give the old god a shake again when his eyes cleared and he seemed to once more compose himself.

"Goku, please take your hand off me." When the saiyajin did as he asked, Kaio-sama brushed his robe off and clasped his hands behind his back. "It's okay now, I think. Arda will be alright for the moment."

"What happened?" Goku asked again, the anxiety slightly less in his voice, but not gone entirely. "King Kai, you have to tell us!"

"I think I'd better start from where we left off, if you want to understand. Trust me," he held his hand up as Goku opened his mouth to protest once more. "He'll be fine for now. But we should hurry."

Throughout this exchange, Vegeta had said nothing, knowing that if Kakarott couldn't get the information out of Kaio-sama then no one would. Uubu had been respectfully silent, allowing his sensei to do the talking. But now the boy/man burst out.

"Kaio-sama, how can you be sure? How do you know?"

King Kai looked down, considering, then back up. "All of you, sit." He said, neglecting to answer Uubu's question altogether. "Arda will be fine for the moment, and this is something you need to hear."

The three warriors looked at each other briefly, then sat on the grass resignedly.

Kaio-sama heaved a deep sigh.

"So." He said, almost conversationally. "You all remember Babidi."

The Shine monster's head had not even fully reformed itself when it charged at him. The thing's speed was phenomenal. Arda leapt back, trying to evade a blow he couldn't even see. But it hit him anyway, bowling him over like a brick wall. We was flung back and into the wall, the monster's fist buried in his gut.

Blood gushed from his mouth, and the pain in his already broken ribs was beyond enormous. But even through it, he noticed the small hissing sound that he dreaded. The hissing of air through a narrow crack, directly behind his head. Being sucked out. The walls were beginning to give.

Mia leapt to battle immediately, behind the creature, sword flashing as she flayed the thing's back open again and again. Shine took no notice of this whatsoever. Its fist pushed in even further, then opened and shifted. The long claws on the end of its hand suddenly snarled into his flesh, grasping for purchase. They dug in, ripping and twisting. Arda screamed as his strange blood gushed from his body to cover the thing's arm all the way to the elbow. It pattered on the floor like rain.

Is this it? His vision was already beginning to tunnel. If he passed out, this thing could kill him. After all these centuries, all the things I've lived through, is this how I'm going to die? On Osiris' stolen ship with my intestines falling on my boots?

Maybe so. The pain was beginning to fade, and his hands that had been grasping at the monster's arm slipped off. His body seemed light, far away. The room was getting dim, and he could barely hear Mia's cries of fury. Or the monster's insane cackle.

Oh, well. He thought. At least I died fighting something evil. How much more can an undead monster really ask for?

He was almost unconscious when there was a roar, and a blinding flash of fire. The door to the chamber blew off like a bullet, it's metal shape twisted horribly out of true, a wave of flame behind it. Adrenaline rushed into him when he felt the ki, and knew only one person who that could be.

The vampire Osiris flew into the room wreathed in his own telepathically created fire, a burning comet of an immortal. Shine had hardly cocked his head at the disturbance before it was seized by a hand like the maw of a machine and flung like a rag doll across the room. Its cry of rage was piercing as it hit the floor and rolled almost to its master's feet.

"Sit." Osiris said shortly, lowering Arda to the ground.

Then he turned without another word and charged at his enemy.

Shine was on its feet almost before it hit the ground, and Osiris' fist that might have taken the thing's head off instead slammed into its arm, raised in a block. There was a loud boom, and ki reverberated across the room from the point of impact. More minute cracks began to appear and snake their way across the floor and walls.

With the monster's tearing claws out of his gut, the wound in Arda's stomach had already slowed to a trickle and was beginning to close. His head still felt light and sick, but he could see the room clearly. Mia stood next to him, her eyes wide, mouth slightly open as they watched the fight.

Osiris didn't pause for a second; as soon as his first blow was blocked, he tried for a second, to the abdomen. The creature twisted it's spine in a grotesque direction that no normal being could, and the vampire's fist whooshed through thin air. Even so, he didn't lose his concentration. Before he had fought with the likes of Goku and his sons, someone evading him this easily would have surprised him so much that it might have left an opening, but no more. The lesson that there were others in the universe even stronger than he had been well learned and not forgotten.

He opened his palm, flat and less than six inches from Shine's stomach. Out of seemingly nowhere, a flood of electric blue ki exploded and this connected, sending the monster flying across the room and into the wall. This time the entire room rattled, and the sound of air hissing out of the room was plainly audible.

Arda gulped uneasily. He and Osiris could survive easily in the vacuum of space, but it would be unpleasant. And Mia most assuredly would die. Osiris wouldn't care about that, but he did.

There was no time to say anything, however. Shine had bounced back as quickly as before, and shot at the vampire with the same maniacal grin as ever. It flew into a flurry of blows, raining them down so quick and hard that Osiris could not even counter. He was blocking as fast as possible, both fighter's arms and legs a blur, but suddenly it didn't look so good. Soon Osiris would resort to what he always did in a situation like this; the sheer volume of ki in his body. A huge area blast would knock the monster off, sure. But it would destroy the entire ship as well.

I have to get Mia out of here...

They all looked at Kaio-sama, waiting for him to continue. But his face had gone blank again after saying their old wizard enemy's name, as if he were watching something in his mind.

"Why don't they run…?" he muttered to himself.

"What are you talking about!?" Goku was on his feet in front of the Kai. "Kaio-sama, tell me! What's wrong!?"

The god's attention snapped back, and he seemed to focus.

"Goku, you and Vegeta put your hands on my back. I have to point you in the right direction, and you'll feel the kis of Arda and Osiris."

"Osiris!?" Vegeta was on his feet too. "Is he the one doing the killing!!?" the prince's face spelled cold murder.

"No, no. he's actually helping, if you believe that. But I think that his help might kill them anyway, if he doesn't watch it. Now, I want you two to deal with the situation that you find and bring the two vampires and the girl back here."

"What girl?" Vegeta's look of malice had dissolved into puzzlement.

Kaio-sama suddenly looked angry. "Will you stop asking questions and just do as I say!! People's lives are hanging in the balance here!"

Without another word, Goku put his hand on the god's back, and clasped Vegeta's in his own, not waiting for the haughty saiyajin to find some sort of comeback. With King Kai's heightened ki sense, he felt the powers of both vampires right away. He focused and used the small telepathic twitch he had become so used to, and he and Vegeta vanished.

As it turned out, Osiris was not the one to tear the room apart and send them all hurtling into space. He had noticed what was happening as soon as he let out the first ki blast, and knew that he would have to find another way. Luckily, he had help.

Arda was far from totally healed, but he knew that Shine was so focused on Osiris that he would be unnoticed for the moment. He picked up his needle staff and extended it, one hand still held protectively over his stomach. Then he flew.

Osiris was beginning to think that he wouldn't be able to beat this thing under the conditions of the room when out of nowhere Arda's staff came crashing down into the top of the creature's head, smashing it in from above. He had no time to be grateful, so instead he utilized the second he had been given and gathered himself mentally. The irises of his eyes began to pinwheel, and he sent the Fire at Shine with everything he had.

Flames burst into being, the creature's robes on fire and the force of the telepathic power driving it back, flailing about and screaming in surprise.

But its body was not burning. He had sent the Fire into the very center of it with all his considerable psychic strength, and only its robe was burning.

That scared him. He had never seen a living creature, no matter how strong, that would not burn when set aflame. Some could fight back his power, but once on fire, they always burned until dead.

Shine had stopped screaming. It had been surprised, but now it only stood. It was still on fire, the flames licking up from its torso to caress its face and hair. Still smiling. As if the flames felt good.

"Oh, shit." Arda muttered. "Oh, shit shit shit."

At that exact second, Goku and Vegeta appeared in the middle of the room.

They looked at the vampires and the mortal girl with the sword. They looked back. Shine stood there and let its clothes burn, seemingly waiting for someone to try to fight it.

"You…" Arda said breathlessly. "Goku."

"Goku!?" Mia suddenly snapped to attention, much more interested.

"SHINEEEE!!!!!"

The creature was not the patient sort. It blazed across the room at the newcomers, intent on killing.

Goku and Vegeta wasted no time. As soon as they saw the thing coming for them, both blazed into beings of pure gold, and began firing ki blasts at the monster in rapid bursts.

"No, stop!!" Arda yelled, but it was too late.

The blasts tore chunks out of Shine as they connected, black ooze flowing from the wounds and writhing in the air, looking as if it had a mind of its own. But the blasts also tore through the walls and ceiling, and even as Shine was being driven back, the entire back wall gave way and crumbled.

Suddenly the room was a wind tunnel, driving them all out into space. Arda grabbed onto Mia as soon as the wall collapsed. The other's held on with their ki.

Babidi was being pulled back, despite the shield barrier that surrounded him. The monster looked at its master, then back at the others with a grimace. It was the first expression they had seen on its face besides a shark-grin. It was spoiling to continue the fight. But it knew who its master was.

To Kaio-sama's! NOW! You get the girl and I'll get the others! Goku sent the message telepathically to Arda, who nodded.

Goku grabbed Vegeta's wrist in one hand and Osiris' in the other, and they all vanished from sight leaving the wizard and his monster behind.

Other Author's Note: Now, in the next chapter (which is in fact written, so no million year wait this time), some of the larger elements of the story are going to come into play. By which, I mean, this fic is going to be something of a crossover. There are going to be characters and elements from Naruto, Hellsing, and Stephen King's Dark Tower series, as well as others. Not to brag, but I think this story is going to get really good. But just so everyone knows, there's going to be some other things here besides DBZ. And I'll explain things through the story, so you don't have to know a thing about any of the other series to enjoy.

Ta!

Rev