The Last Warrior

Chapter 10: Decision

By: Daniel Graffio (Neoguy23)

April 14, 2005

Slade's eyes opened to a sea of gray clouds, he was lying on his back, staring straight up at the sky. He sat up and rose to his feet. His knees felt weak, but they supported him well enough. He shifted his eyes to the crystal clear water of the lake. Hoping he could clear his head, he walked sluggishly to the edge of the water, and dunked his head into it. The water was ice cold, and its effect was immediate. Slade raised his head from the water feeling better than he had for awhile. He looked again at the cloudy gray sky and reflected on his experience. A smile touched his face for a moment, but faded soon. His thoughts turned to Kane, what he had done and what he was now trying to do to him. Slade brought his hands to his waist and clenched them into fists. His anger was growing now, and his power was rising with it. A blue aura flashed around him and glowed like fire. The water that was drenching his hair and dripping into his clothes was beginning to turn to steam on his skin. Wind seemed to be generated by the sheer force of the power Slade was exuding. Even the clouds in the sky began to part, and the ground began to shake. Eve and the rest of the group felt this shaking and ran outside without a word to each other. They froze on the spot after exiting the door to the outside, rooted to the spot with a mixture of astonishment and fear on their collective faces. Finally, Slade threw his hands into the air, palms up, and there was an explosion. The force of the blast knocked them all off of their feet. They coughed and sputtered in the smoke and dust the blast left behind.

"Slade." Eve thought. "What happened?"

The smoke cleared after a few minutes, and when it did, Slade was gone. All that was left behind was a small crater, and few charred bits of grass and rock. They looked around the spot where he should have been, but found not even a trace of their friend.

"Where did he go?" asked Ena, breaking the astounded silence. "He didn't die in that blast did he?"

"It certainly looks that way." said Glenn, looking into the sky as the clouds began to reform, shutting out the blue sky like the closing of an eye. Then they all heard laughter behind them, a laugh like someone who was heard a funny joke. A warm laugh. They turned around quickly and saw the source of it. Slade stood standing against the rock wall of the base. He was smiling the half-smile they had seen on him before, and his tail was wagging freely, almost teasing them. He then wrapped it around his waist like a belt and walked towards them.

"C'mon guys," he said, his smile widening a bit, "After everything you've seen me survive, you should know I wouldn't get killed that easily." He laughed again. The rest of them smiled, Eve widest of all. She found herself thinking how handsome he looked when he was laughing, and felt a blush starting on her cheeks. She shook her head to get rid of the thought that caused it, no one noticed.

"I take it you found you were looking for." said Aiden.

"That and so much more." Slade said whimsically, putting his hands out to his sides, palms up, and looking like a ringmaster at a circus.

"So what are you gonna do now Slade?" asked Una. Slade's smile dropped a bit, but it was still clearly visible on his face. He spoke in his usual even tone.

"I'm gonna train more. I'm gonna get stronger, strong enough to beat Zenyu and that monster Kane." He clenched his fist, "I don't know if it's the Saiyan in me or the desire for revenge, but something tells me I'm gonna enjoy it."

"Well Slade," spoke up Page, "If you want a way to get stronger, I might have a way to help. Follow me."

He led Slade back to the padded training room, where he had destroyed the robot Zenith. The others went with Page into the control room. Page pressed down on the com button and spoke into the microphone.

"Okay Slade, I'd like to perform a little test first."

"All right." Slade answered back.

Page began pushing various buttons on the console. Inside the room where Slade was, a side of the wall opened, as it had done when Zenith the robot had come out. This time though, it was a number of small ball-shaped robots, floating in like metallic bubbles.

"Ok Slade," came Page's voice through the speakers in the wall, "Destroy these things as fast as you can." He had barely finished the last word, when Slade was returning his sword to his sheath, the little robots slashed to bits.

"Excellent." boomed Page's voice, "About a half a second." He began pushing more buttons. Another group of the bubble-bots came out and surrounded Slade.

"How many of these things do you have?" Slade asked, one eyebrow raised.

"Plenty." said Page, "They're just spare parts so don't worry. I just make them when I'm bored."

Slade laughed inwardly at this, thinking not for the first time about the great but strange company he'd fallen in with.

"Though they probably find you stranger than anything." he thought.

"Again Slade, fast as you can." said Page's voice.

Slade did it again.

"3 seconds that time." said Page, working with the console more and more intensely. He made Slade destroy his robots about a dozen times, the last time taking Slade about thirty seconds to get them all. The time was still incredibly fast, but to Slade it felt like an embarrassment. He noticed with every time it felt harder and harder to move around. Page could obviously see the look of frustration on Slade's face, and said reassuringly,

"Don't worry Slade. Nothing's wrong with you. I've been gradually increasing the gravity in the room."

Everyone in the room, and Slade down below the, wore a look of puzzlement. One that almost seemed to say, "Why the hell would you do that?" Page laughed at their looks, and explained,

"I'd read a long time ago that famous fighters would use this method. They trained hard under increased gravity, until they'd gotten used to it. When they would fight again in normal gravity, they would be much faster. It's taken me awhile to get the system right, but it obviously works well enough now. You're currently sitting under 30 times Earth's gravity."

The people gathered in the control room looked as though they didn't quite believe this was possible, or if it would work. Slade, on the other hand, smiled his half-smile again. Inside his head, a voice only he could hear said,

"We used to do that. It works, trust me." It was Goku's voice.

"Well, that's good enough for me." Slade said to himself, then in a louder voice he said, "Hey, this sounds like a good thing, but could you let me out of here now? Today's been kinda tiring."

Page laughed,

"Sure Slade, just let me know when you want to train." he said. He lowered the gravity and let Slade out. The young fighter returned to his room, and lay down on the bed. For a long time, he just lay there, staring at the ceiling, thinking of his trials to come. He then heard a knock at the door. He smiled, as he knew who it was, whether by intuition or by the sense of her ki. He sat up on the bed and told the owner of the knock to come in. Eve walked in and Slade invited her to sit next to him. She did so and looked at him with a worried smile. Slade was wondering how long she would sit there in silence when she spoke up.

"Slade?" she said, her voice quivering slightly, "What happened out there?" He knew she would ask this, but all the same, he didn't know quite how to begin.

"Well," he said, "I had a little talk with my family."

Eve looked at him as if he'd gone crazy, which he understood.

"It was some kind of vision," he continued, "I saw my family again, and they helped me find who I am."

"You saw you're mom, dad, and brother?" asked Eve, sounding like a child who's being told a ghost story and believing every scrap of it.

"Not just them," said Slade, "I saw my entire family. I met the last two pureblooded Saiyans who started my bloodline on Earth."

Eve's eyes opened wider,

"You saw the Saiyans?" she gasped.

"Yeah, and they were anything but the monsters Kane said they were." Slade laughed. Eve continued looking surprised for a minute or two, then smiled at him again, a much warmer and satisfied smile.

"I knew they couldn't be," she said, "Because you aren't one."

Slade smiled and thanked her. She thought again how good he looked when he smiled. Little did she know that Slade was thinking the same thing about her. After a few more moments of silence, Eve spoke up again, in her usual buoyant tone.

"So what do you plan on doing now Slade?" she asked.

"Like I said before, I'm going to get stronger. Strong enough to take Kane down." He spoke with a commanding tone like nothing Eve had ever heard, she watched him rise, her mouth opening with awe.

"I've also decided that if Kane wants a monster, then he's gonna get one. I'll be the most terrifying monster he ever saw. He'll be sorry he didn't kill me when he had the chance." Slade's dark eyes were blazing, almost with madness, "He'll regret the day he EVER made an enemy out of me!"

Eve watched him with a feeling that was separated from her growing fondness for the young man in front of her. In that minute, watching him make his proclamation, she had and idea.

"Slade," she said, her voice almost as strong as his had been a moment ago, "If that's the way you really feel, then let us help you. Become our leader." Now it was her eyes turn to blaze madly. Both this and the offer took Slade a bit by surprise.

"Leader?" he said, "I thought that was your job."

"Well, technically we don't have a leader." she said, "I guess most people look to me for direction, because I'm a stronger will."

"And you think my will is stronger?"

"Exactly." She smiled at him.

Slade stood thinking for a minute, then smiled back at her.

"Ok, I'll do it."

She beamed at him.

"All right. I'll tell the others." She then excused herself from the room. Slade looked after her for a moment, then lay down on his bed again.

"You've got good friends, who care about you a lot." his brother had told him. "One of them in particular."

Slade smiled at this last thought, as he drifted off to sleep.