I wish I owned DBZ, but I don't. I own DVD's and tapes, but it just isn't the same. I also don't own the right to Starcraft or any of the music pieces you see selected, just copies of merchandise, such a shame. The artists that created them are geniuses and we all must bow to them.

Chapter 61: Final Battle Begins

I wasn't in recovery as long as I thought I would be, but the Super Mystic transformation had taken care of some of my injuries. I didn't pass out from the extreme pain I endured from pulling my own tail out, I had done it before. To my surprise, the pain didn't last all that long, as once that part of the nervous system was disconnected I wouldn't feel it anymore. That didn't stop my ass from hurting a great deal. Everyone who witnessed it was more distressed about it though, and I found that one of them stuck around at all times to make sure I didn't do anything more drastic. Mostly Vegeta, and as soon as I recovered, he told me that another trait of mating bond depression was tail removal.

"That could have been it, but the whole reason that the Overmind stooped that low was because of my tail. He brought back that paralysis that I've never had to deal with, I'd say the ends justify the means from now on," I said as I had finally woken up after a day and a half. I stumbled the first time out of bed without the tail, but it didn't take long to get used to things without it. There were also a lot of Protoss officers showing up to make apologetic remarks about this, saying they didn't know how she got past their scouts and defenses. I let this go since most of them had been in a fight with the Zerg at the time, any fast moving Saiyan could get by their eyes more than easily. Something strange had happened shortly after the tail was gone, and it was a bit surprising. My nightmares ceased their continuous hold on me during sleep. They were recurrent as usual, but it stopped disturbing me so bad that I could at least put up with them. Vegeta mentioned that Saiyan mating bonds are strongest through the tail, so removing it would drastically reduce its effects, which was nice at know. My drifting into depression cycles during the day almost completely ceased as we neared what would surely be the final day to be spent on Auir. I no longer thought about committing suicide on an hourly basis, and I was thinking more clearly over all, especially when directing my suggestions to Protoss commanders with assaulting the Zerg. It hadn't affected me as much during the fight with the Clones, but once I wasn't fighting something, I was down emotionally.

Speaking of fighting the Zerg, we had cut down the Zerg lands to eight percent of Auir occupied. With only one Brood left, the Overmind's forces were severely crippled now. Waves and waves of Zerg had been created as we slowly chipped away at them, but it made no difference. Whether we Saiyans took care of the job or had left them to the Protoss, they were cut down. Eventually Tassadar set up several base camps for the Protoss forces, completely surrounding the remainder of the Zerg lands and fortifying their position with the army of Auir. Once the Protoss ground forces caught sight of the Overmind's official position, we planned for the final fight while pulling them back just a bit. Vegeta, Gohan and I sat across from Tassadar, Fenix and Zeratul to plan for the assault.

"How shall we proceed, young one? Your strategies against the Overmind have been outstanding, and we would like you to direct the final assault!" Tassadar suggested. I sighed slightly, but quickly thought it over.

"I want the majority of your forces to drive at the last brood and destroy it before coming after the Overmind. I think it will pull most of the Zerg away from the creature itself, after all it's down to its last agent, save for any more clones. Zeratul's brethren will kill that last Cerebrate before we go after the Overmind itself. Hopefully this will go quickly and we can end it as fast as possible, but be prepared for a tough fight, I'm expecting one," I said, leaning against my hands as I twirled my thumbs in thought.

"Sounds like a good plan, but so far your plans have been based on tactical advantage and surprise by distraction. Why not attack while our forces are keeping that last Brood busy?" Fenix asked.

"That is the surprise, the Overmind would probably expect that strategy, and he can likely sense our power levels around the planet if we are powered up or close enough. We move in along with the Protoss to kill off that last Brood and he's completely boxed in. We'll hold for a short time to see if he doesn't do something stupid or foolish to waste his efforts. I prefer a worn down enemy before just charging in to tangle with him," I explained.

"Once again I dare say that the greatest Protoss Executors would not have a chance against this boy, I'll inform the ship commanders right away," Fenix said as he left promptly.

"What about the fight against the infernal creature itself, is there anything special you plan to do?" Tassadar asked me now.

"Other than just blast it to pieces, no. However that has been done before to no avail, even by your own devices. When Broly tried to wipe it out on earth, it didn't work because of the Overmind's massive amount of energy in spiritual form. The damn thing is more energy than matter from what I've seen, its presence is hard to deal with. Its actual body is more like a representation of its energy. Its large size reflects this as it holds a tremendous amount of power, and it would have to be so it could control all these minions. This also allows it to regenerate as fast as it does, I've seen it happen before. I suspect that destroying the core of the creature first will go a long way to get rid of it once and for all, but killing all of it at once would be hard to do without blowing up the planet. As I understand, ki energy and Psi should be used together to hurt it. That's what we did with the Cerebrates, so it is safe to assume that the Overmind can be hurt by the same attacks," I explained further with my knowledge of the creature.

"So what do you suggest?" he asked again.

"Between Gohan, Zeratul's brethren, and myself, we should be able to kill it off, but it may take some time. And we don't know where the core of that being is exactly. One would think the middle, but I'm pretty sure it has evolved enough over time to be able to move it around at will. My experience with this showed up during travel, I'm pretty sure the damn thing had to shed a majority of its body to fit inside what they called a Super Hive. It was really big, but it wasn't that much bigger than a regular hive. I've seen its eye before, and we should look for that. It will have a big energy signature with it and it's as big as Broly himself. But in what, miles of tissues, that won't be so easy to find," I pointed out.

"We should make the Overmind move it around to where we want it, we slowly take out its appendages and it will have to run to its center, then we have it locked down," Vegeta suggested as I nodded.

"Agreed, the attack begins at midday, may Adun be with us," Tassadar said, adjourning the meeting.

-

Gohan and I kept our power levels downas we waited aboard Tassadar's ship outside enemy lines where Raynor's Norad was also present along side. We had run out of Saiyan armor that Bulma had made, so the Protoss made a similar style for us to wear. There were no shoulder straps with these, but the shoulder-neckline area was protected much better with the improvements they had made. Vegeta thought they looked bad, but didn't really complain when Goku tested its toughness with a pretty hard punch and got little to nothing as a result. A generous amount of the fleet had been sent along with the Zeratul and the other Saiyans to engage the Zerg on the other side of the Overmind's position. We spent most of the time in meditation, though Gohan cut it short once we got word that most of the Zerg life forms on the planet were now heading to support the last Brood.

"So, are you ready to do this?" he asked carefully.

"I have been for awhile," I said without opening my eyes.

"It's just that the last few days have been, dramatic," he said, casting a worried expression at me.

"Yeah I know, dealing with it has been eating me up. But to know that today it will end one way or another, it lightens the pressure a bit, believe it or not," I explained.

"We've got two dimensions, or more, riding on this outcome. Two somewhat whole universes to fight for, and your not feeling any extra pressure?" Gohan asked, astonished.

"The pressure has lifted ever since we got here, the war was the hard part. This battle may be the final for one side, but the journey to get to this place is over. To know we shouldn't have to chase it down anymore, it relieves me a lot," I said with a smug look.

"Whatever man, just keep clear and focused and we should do just fine. Remember we might have to fight Broly again, and he's going to be tough. But with the two of us working together, we should be all right, just let me take most of the punishment," he said as he grinned back.

"You don't have to tell me twice," I said as a loud beeping came into my scouter. It was actually a transmission for Tassadar, but they had reworked things so I could hear them as well if it was vital information.

"Go ahead Praetor," Tassadar said as I listened in.

"The last Cerebrate has been killed and the Zerg nearby are starting to go rogue and are destroying each other, awaiting further orders!" Fenix announced.

"What's the position of remaining Zerg around the Overmind?" I asked.

"There's barely one thousand standing Zerg life forms according to our latest scans, the way is laid bare," Fenix reported.

"Set course for the Overmind, we'll meet you there," I said once and felt the ship move right away.

"Here we go," Gohan muttered.

-

"I am picking up a life form emitting a high amount of energy not far from the Overmind itself," an officer reported.

"Gotta be Broly," Gohan said.

"Hold position here, we're only a few miles away, otherwise you'll risk destruction of the ships and their crews. We'll go on ahead from here and face him now," I said, leaving the bridge right away. I hit a smaller button on the side of the scouter and watched the lens slip inside before clipping it onto the side of my Saiyan armor, a nice improvement to them by the Protoss. Gohan and I left the ship and flew ahead with all focus turned to our mission. As soon as we saw the outer tentacles of the Overmind, we both started to power up a bit. It wasn't long until a bright golden aura flew up from the grounds ahead, racing right towards us. It felt very big, more than my full power and a bit more than Gohan's as well.

"Hope you're ready," Gohan said softly.

"Well, if I'm not, we're gonna know pretty quick," I said as the golden figure arrived. There was no mistake, it was Broly. His Zerg cells covered most of his body except for his face and hair, and he looked to be powered all the way up in his ultra form. Just the sight of him stirred a fire in my blood.

"So, you two are finally ready to die?" he sneered as he stopped in mid air.

"You're the one going to hell today, and so is your master!" I warned, aligning my energies as I did. Broly charged us both quickly as soon as I said this, missing us narrowly as we dodged to either side. I had to flip around in the air so I didn't get hit on the blindside. As soon as I was clear I powered up to Super Mystic just as Gohan did himself. Broly stopped long enough to witness the two transformations, unsure about whom he was going to attack first. He chose to go for me by shooting a big ki blast my way. I activated my sword and deflected it into the sky, where it blew up when it hit an orbital platform. I phased out when the light blinded him for a moment, slashing across his large back. He spun quickly with another assault of ki blasts and I had to fly downwards to avoid them. He came down after me, but didn't see Gohan coming until the knee hit his face. The two engaged in a scuffle of punches while I moved back up to eye level, ready for another go. Broly deflected Gohan's attacks pretty well and threw a small ki beam to knock him out of the way. Just as he did, I swept by and sliced both of his legs open with my sword, spilling blood into the air. He growled in pain loudly as he held them by instinct, not seeing Gohan once again. He was knocked into the grounds and kicked up a lot of dust in the process, blasting back into the air a few moments later. He was already mad at our antics, and he was only going to get more frustrated soon with what I had in mind. He went after Gohan this time, who barely evaded his attacks. His wounds closed up quickly, but slower than I expected, meaning that it wasn't a complete transfusion of the body like Borgos had been. I wasn't surprised though, my infestation had been the same way, and I even suspected that perhaps that the other way was the only way to maintain a completely dead agent and not a clone, also as Borgos had been. I stood by and watched for him to get sloppy, which only took a few minutes because of Gohan's constant dodging. When he did, I separated and reabsorbed the ki from my sword and left it as normal Psi, reforming it into a white blast and thinking about family and friends as I did so. Once Broly had his back turned and Gohan saw what I was doing, he engaged in another round of fisticuffs, to which Broly gladly obliged.

"Feedback!" I shouted as I fired at his wounded back. I struck pay dirt and watched as he tumbled to the ground in pain as his massive body lit up with white energy.

"Gohan, time for the finishing blow, you hit him from one side and I'll do the other!" I said telepathy. We lined up with Broly in the middle on the ground, charging the big green blasts from hell.

"Super Galic Gun!" I uttered, firing straight at Gohan's Kamehameha. Broly had gotten a hold of himself at this point and was beginning to eject the feedback effect from his body as I expected may happen, but much too occupied to notice the two huge green beams coming straight at him. They smashed into him and exploded off of each other when we discontinued the attack, easily blinding everyone who saw it, including ourselves. What was left was a battered and beaten Broly at the bottom of a good-sized crater, not moving.

I rescanned his energy level, seeing it had taken a drop, but I noticed another energy field coming near. I searched around but saw nothing until I felt Broly feed off of it and get back up slowly.

"You feel that?" Gohan asked telepathically.

"Yeah, I think it came from the Overmind, looks like we're gonna have to totally wipe him out!" I replied, hovering off the ground and around Broly. Broly stretched a bit before powering up again, not looking overly happy. I landed next to Gohan and stood parallel to him, mostly waiting to see what Broly would do. He growled a lot before rising into the air and charging a small but extremely powerful ki ball, certainly meant for us.

"You know what to do," Gohan said without looking at me.

"Yeah, let's up the power just a bit. Ka...me...ha...me...HA!" we chanted together as Broly shot it out way. Our mixed energy beam collided with his ki ball and held it in the sky as it expanded a whole bunch. Broly fired a large string of similar bombs our way, pushing the collision ball more towards us slowly.

"He's in position, are you ready?!" Gohan shouted over the roar of the energy colliding.

"Yeah, let's do it! HAAAA!!!!" I shouted back, putting a plan we had made earlier to work. Basically Gohan figured that we would have to blast him a lot and that combining our power into one beam would be the best way as long as he kept still. We both powered up more and re-energized our massive beam, sending Broly's energy back into his face within a few seconds. Another explosion and we saw Broly plummet to the ground, his body and energy in shambles once again. The energy field I had detected made itself present once again, but this time it took longer to do its magic.

"Man, how does he live through it," Gohan said as we stood back and waited patiently.

"He's a tougher version, but I don't think the Overmind can get any more power out of him other than restoring what he had. Be glad we can gang up on him," I said, pulling my scouter out.

"I vaporized him before with just as much power as we just used," Gohan declared, confused.

"Big ugly loves to screw with genes and cells, this version is probably harder to break then any sort of metal the Kais could dig up," I said, hitting the button to transmit.

"Tassadar, what's your position and where is Vegeta and the others?" I asked into it.

"My ship is located about two miles to your north now. I've met up with Prince Vegeta and the other two Saiyans, they are standing by," he reported.

"Tell them to hit the Overmind right now," I ordered.

"Do what?" I heard Vegeta ask.

"Hit the damned thing with ki blasts! Its feeding Broly a lot of energy even when we beat him down. I suspect that if you guys hit it now, it won't be able to keep it up. Start at the outskirts and work your way in!" I repeated.

"Understood," he said just as Broly started to stir. I flew into the air and spotted two long tentacles of the Overmind nearby. I got near one of the ends and shot a mixed beam into it and allowed it to follow the trail back a good ways. It shredded the tissues easily, and had a direct effect on the energy field in the air around Broly. Looks like my theory about the core of the beast may be correct, he had to back off a little bit. I shot another one at the other piece of the creature that I spotted. Just as that section vanished in a ball of fire, I sensed Vegeta, Goku and Bardock all power up around the area, seeing their golden auras in the sky. The energy field dropped in intensity once again, but it was still present. Broly was slowly getting up again, but he was definitely winded despite the recharge of energy he was getting.

Hmmm, he's tired either way, feedback time! I thought, charging another potent Psi ball. Broly didn't see this one coming either, but screamed a lot when it hit, his rage and anger added to its affect. I glanced to the west and saw multiple ki blasts and beams raining down on the Overmind's large form, shredding it in many places. Broly managed to stand up and break out of my hold once again by powering up over about two minutes.

Man, how does he do it with so much evil blood in his veins? Then I remembered one of Zeratul's lessons, pure evil has the ability to power out of it given enough effort and energy. Broly was a hell of a lot stronger than me currently, and insane, so that fit the bill pretty well. Broly didn't attack us, instead he raced towards the others who were beating on the Overmind. Gohan and I chased after him not a moment later.

Power levels:

Verto (SM): 600,000,000

Gohan (SM): 700,000,000

Infested Broly (Ultra SS): 730,000,000