"That's...impossible..." Trunks was aghast. Before his very eyes, Black had shed the mortal Super Saiyan form, revealing that he too was capable of becoming a Super Saiyan God. "Gohan explained the transformation ritual to me! You need six Saiyans...and they have to be righteous hearted!"

Gohan was similarly horrified. The situation had changed entirely. Black had seemed only a rogue Super Saiyan. To casually and easily transform into a Super Saiyan God...Trunks' advantage was shattered mere moments after he'd shown it off.

"This body has held this godly ki for long time, Trunks," said Black. "I merely was having trouble reaching it. That barrier has been shattered, and it has responded to my divine soul - there is no heart in all of the Universes more righteous than I!"

"Trunks, I'm stepping in!" Gohan called out. "This is wholly a new problem now, we underestimated the scope of the situation!"

"Stay back, Gohan," said Trunks. His hand tightened around the hilt of his broadsword, crimson eyes flashing with fire. "I know why you haven't interfered, and nothing has changed now - if I can't defeat him here, then what's the point?!" Trunks' blade glinted against the light of two Super Saiyan God auras, ethereal fire reflecting off of physical metal.

"Are you sure you aren't getting a bit hot headed?" asked Black curiously. "I know what you've done, Trunks. The Androids. Cell. You disposed of them so effectively. Would you have refused Gohan's help then, as you do now?"

"That was different!" growled Trunks. "This is about making a point to myself!"

"That you're not the same weakling I sent scurrying to the past?" suggested Black. "That Bulma didn't die for no reason? How does it feel, Trunks? Knowing Bulma and Gohan both died because of your failures."

Trunks' aura instantly flared. Vibrant, crimson flames roared to life, surrounding him in a conflagration of godly might. His hair whipped up in the uprising ki maelstrom, the Saiyan God gripping his sword firmly. The whipping winds from his aura spread out, covering the forest, causing Black's face to break out into a maddening grin.

"That's it," he said, his voice almost a purr. "I'll crush you here and now."

Trunks, what are you doing?! Worried thoughts raced through Gohan's mind. During his practise wielding both Super Saiyan God and its ascended state, he'd realised that there was a stark difference between both forms; Super Saiyan God required a sort of control over the mind of the user. The Super Saiyan God needed a clear head to be able to read the movements of his opponent, dodging the incoming blows and redirecting the force with his own. Super Saiyan God was not a form where brute strength could win out — that belonged instead to its ascended state, which Gohan had realised in his battle with Cell, relied heavily on overpowering the enemy with brute force. He's not in his right mind; the god ki won't respond correctly if he fights like this, but he's not even hearing anything now!

Black coated his arm in ki, readying himself in time to clash with the oncoming shooting star Trunks had become. Trunks and Black's blades slammed into each other, metal, aided and reinforced by Trunks' own energy pouring from his body, and ki. crafted by the hand of a meticulous monster. The forest's ground creaked and groaned beneath their combined strength. The two weapons pressing against each other caused a flare-up of ki, though two shapes quickly burst from it, ignoring the potential damage. Trunks pursued Black, who evaded and parried.

Metal struck ki, Trunks swiping through the air at Black, who responded in kind with a streak of light, blocking Trunks' incoming strike. The two wove around each other through the sky, rising higher as they moved. Gohan could only watch, unable to properly view their moves with himself still in mortal state, though he had an inclination based on their fighting styles. A long swipe from Trunks' blade was deftly dodged by Black, who wove through the air, snakelike; the toe of his white boot struck Trunks true, knocking him back...

...though the man remained undeterred, spiraling through the air to pull himself upright, making a mad dash through the sky towards Black. His sword, breaking the sky, clashed against Black's once again; Trunks' forward momentum pushed him past the black-clad Saiyan. Whirling around, Trunks' sword burst into flame. Swinging it in an arc, he discharged ki from it. The crescent-shape wave rained down on Black, who braced himself for impact. He brought his ki sabre to meet the oppressive moon, piercing the technique and rupturing it in an explosion.

The black-clad God rushed through the flames, catching Trunks entirely off-guard. His ki sabre swung down, releasing a blaze of ki. The technique very nearly forced Trunks down to Earth. It was the Saiyan God's masterful flight control, touched only upon his blind rage, which brought him back to bear against Black, his entire body coated in his godly ki. Sensing Trunks' return, Black immersed himself in his own ki, diving downward towards Trunks. Two streaking red meteors crossed the sky, meeting in a powerful flash of light. The explosion rocked the sky, shaking the planet itself, and out of the smoke, Trunks' form careened towards the surface of the planet.

Debris and smoke plumed high, Trunks' form digging deep into the earth, his body tunneling away at untold speeds. He crashed to a halt, encased in a pile of rocks following another ensuing explosion. Black descended, landing on the ground with a hand on his hip, staring intently where Trunks had come to a landing.

BOOM!

The debris erupted in an explosion of crimson energy; a geyser, only it was capable of movement. Trunks had burst to life from the piles of rock and dirt, rising high above Black, who seemed taken aback by the young man's quick recovery and vicious movement. Trunks tightened his grip on his sword, nearly vice-like; the fact that it did not break remained a miracle. Blazing energy coated the blade itself, burning outwards with Trunks at the centre point. Roaring, the Super Saiyan God swiped his blade downward, descending like a guillotine down on Black.

Black's energy-clad hand swiftly raised itself to counter the shooting star Trunks had back. Orange clashed against orange, Trunks' form becoming clear only when his energy burst to reveal the trail behind him. Streams of ki slipped past him, snapping at the ground like tendrils. Grunts escaped from Black's throat, while Trunks growled in response. Two sets of crimson eyes narrowed, boring into each other, as Trunks

The spot of energy, burning and jagged, bore through the ground, making its way towards an utterly stunned Black. Facing the incoming technique, Black raised his hand to block it. Energy slammed into the sword-shaped aura covering Black's palm, and the two's powers roared against each other. Black could feel his stance slipping, his boots sliding along the ground — and a wave of ki swept him up into the air. With Trunks no longer supplying it an active source of power, Black revved the blade covering his arm with fresh energy and dispersed Trunks' attack instantly.

How is he using the god power this way? Black thought, bewilderment filling his brain. He flipped over in the air, building up pressure in his soles, bursting towards Trunks in an attempted counterattack. A Super Saiyan God shouldn't be able to fight this way. There's so much aggression, he's almost—

Whatever Trunks might have been, Black's thoughts came to a screeching halt. Energy was flowing in reverse; the ebb and flow of the ki Trunks had assaulted him with, which by all right should have disseminated into the atmosphere, was now flowing past him back to Trunks' sword. Trunks was using Super Saiyan God correctly. Black's eyes grew saucer-wide, screeching to a halt to brace himself for the incoming surge of god ki. Trunks had swung the sword downward once more, releasing a wave even larger than the last towards Black. His ki-clad hand seared against Trunks' power, only for him to be hit by the a stunning realisation.

He was being effortlessly overpowered.

Trunks' technique could no longer be contained to a single spot. The crescent blast swallowed Black up entirely, the wave of energy shifting position as it washed over the godly Saiyan. Trees collapsed, the ground rent asunder. Trunks was breathing heavily, still clutching his sword in its downward position. The smoke from his destruction twirled skyward, obscuring everything from the young man's crimson eyes.

"I wish you would treat your planet with more care."

Black's voice drifted out of the smokescreen, sending a shudder down Trunks' spine. Shimmering around him, as if it were a heat illusion in a desert, was a spherical barrier. It appeared to have been conjured hastily; his body had been impacted by Trunks' attack, with cuts and scuffs along his entire body, and his attire was showing the wear and tear of battle. Black had, however, managed to deflect the bulk of the technique away from himself, and a large portion of the land behind him. His expression was irate, contrasting with the gentle face Super Saiyan God have given him.

"To call yourself this world's saviour, yet to do it such undue harm while fighting me?" Black scoffed, raising a finger towards Trunks. "You mortals prove, time and time again, why only I am fit to pass judgement on you." At the tip of Black's finger, crimson energy formed around an onyx-hued core. An explosive force rocked the area around them, Black discharging the kikōha instantly towards Trunks. The younger Saiyan God hastily attempted to guard himself, being consumed by light and vanishing from sight. True to his own statement, the explosion ensuing from Black's technique was maintained and well controlled around its own epicentre, lacking the reckless and wanton destruction of Trunks' own technique.

A figure burst from the smoke, attempting to move skyward, but Black was ready. Pursuing Trunks out of the billowing smoke line, Black continued his assault. A solid white boot connected firmly with Trunks' body. The pressure explosion forced the Super Saiyan God backwards, shattering the ground on impact. Red streaked after Trunks, regaining form as Black skidded to a halt, poised directly over Trunks. One hand was placed on the man's chest, keeping him pinned to the ground, while the other, crackling and clad in ki, was raised high above his head.

"It's been far too long since I've fought someone I could call my equal," said Black, his face breaking into a twisted kind of smile. "I never expected you to ever truly rival me, Trunks. As much as I'd love to continue fighting, even that fleeting joy will not stop me from meting out justice! Time to perish Saiyan!" Aiming directly for Trunks' neck, a thin line of red descended downwards.

Western Capital Ruins, Underground Compound, Earth

Bulma sat, crosslegged on the ground, the quaking of their compound continuing with its multiple interruption giving it a strange tempo. Bulma simply had to accept the reality of that part of their situation. The combatants were all fighting on the level of gods - far beyond the capacity of even regular Super Saiyans, The fact that the planet remained intact could only be said to be due to the unique nature of the ki of the gods, or so Bulma theorised. Impatiently, her finger tapped against her knee, and the woman found herself trying to analyse the entire situation at hand.

Gohan's words were stuck in her head; with every refugee tended to and fed, she had nothing to stop her from overthinking what he had said.

I really feel as if we don't have all the necessary context here.

Ever since I've arrived here, I've felt something strange. Something is way off.

Bulma was never one to rely entirely on intuition, but she didn't want to discredit Gohan's warnings. Especially not when she too had been getting a strange sense ever since she'd been allowed to focus on where she was. "It's...almost akin to being watched?" Bulma thought, a gloved finger touching her chin lightly. "I can't place it..." She closed her eyes, and tried to feel for ki. If she was being watched by someone, she was bound to feel their power, right? To her dismay, her senses were filled with multiple "flames" - in her mind's eye, she was surrounded by multiple signs of life, and each of them seemed to exist and merge alongside each other, stopping her from truly spreading her senses out and searching.

"I'm around too many people," she groaned, placing a hand to her forehead. "I need something more precise than my shoddy ki sense..." It didn't, however, take Bulma long to realise she had exactly what she was angling for.

"Qirka!"

The cyborg woman responded to her mistresses summons at once, appearing at her side as if pulled by magic.

"You called for me?"

"We're going to need your sensors," Bulma said. "I can't shake the feeling we're being...watched, as illogical as it sounds. I need something more precise than my ability to sense ki."

Qirka nodded, her eyes flashing ominously. She scanned the entirety of the compound, her icy-blue eyes' pupils dilating and contracting in response to the signatures they were picking up. They picked up multiple faces, detecting signs of life from each and every individual within the chamber, but to Qirka's dismay, the multitudes of individuals threw her senses off as badly as her mistress. Shaking her head, she blinked rapidly, and Qirka quickly turned off her sensors. "I-I'm sorry, there's too many people here. Even if we're being watched, my life detection sensors can't pick them up."

Bulma grit her teeth, refusing to be stuck in this quandary. "Then switch to heart rate."

"H-Heart rate?" Qirka stammered. "Mistress, there's simply too many—"

"The heart rates here are all fluctuating; the fearful are experiencing tachycardia, while the exhausted are experiencing bradycardia," Bulma explained. "Search for a heartbeat that is distant from the others, and beating differently from theirs. I don't think what we're looking for is an Earthling either."

The cyborg woman nodded, inwardly switching protocols; her eyes flashed again, the brown-haired woman once again scanning the area. It was as Bulma had said. Every Earthling here had a wildly fluctuating beat that differentiated from what her database said a normal Earthling heart rate would be. Her eyes panned down one of the hallways, away from the various refugees. Perhaps if she searched outside of the recommended range. Her dilated again, magnifying her perception, and she saw it.

A wild heartbeat.

Far above what a normal human body was able to withstand at rest. Counting, she easily surmised the heart was beating between 150-200 bpms.

The heart rate associated with that of a Saiyan.

"Mistress, there's someone else here!" Qirka shouted, her vision filling with vivid light.

The Forest, Earth

Time slowed down for Trunks.

Black had him pinned, yet the young man wasn't done fighting. Black's taunts, the torture he'd put his family and friends too, the screaming of those slaughtered by Black's hands, all of it pounded in Trunks' ears, along with his blood. He was pinned, but his hands were free.

"Taiyōken!"

The cry, and flash of light was instantaneous. Trunks, still spurred on by fury towards Black, and everything he'd done, unleashed one of the Crane School signatures, and his body began a beacon of light. Gohan, mercifully, hadn't gotten the direct blast. Black, however, found his vision whited out, dark spots flickering in the whiteness.

Shit! Black's eyes shut furiously in reaction to the light, but there was no stopping it. He'd taken the full force. An armour-toed boot forced Black off of Trunks, and the God-like Saiyan tried to steady himself on the ground, blind and dazed. Trunks, leaping to his feat, rushed Black, sword drawn. The sound of slicing metal through air, the vibrations, and the battle sense to know how and where Trunks would move was the only thing that saved Black from a full slash across the chest.

The sharpened blade sliced through Black's gi, narrowly missing his chest as the Saiyan God stepped back to avoid the lethality. Sliding his arm through the air, Trunks released a brilliant display of miniature stars in front of Black. Kikōha bombarded him, pushing him back. Black retaliated even amidst the explosions, reaching through fire and smoke, holding light in his palm. The kikōha discharged from Black's palm, exploding point blank in Trunks' face, his previous attack having given away his location to the temporarily blind Saiyan god.

In Gohan's vision, the combatting deities were obscured in flame and plume.

I can't believe how evenly matched these two are, thought Gohan, feeling the vibrations and pressure through the air as the gods clashed throughout the forest. You'd hardly know Trunks is the same young man who showed up so desperate for help. At the same time, I wouldn't peg Black as the same man I forced back to the future from the past either. Gohan knew it had something to do with their own Saiyan biology. With the ability to recover and adapt as they fought in battle, Saiyans didn't merely gain massive jumps by recovering from near-death.

Every battle shaped them, moulded them, and influenced their combat strength. Trunks and Black, even as they fought, were adapting to each other, their Saiyan cells responding to desperation from fighting such an equal opponents.

Come on, Trunks. One decisive blow can end this!

A decisive blow might have been the hardest thing to ask for. Trunks' and Black's similar combat strengths made it less a match of strength and more of wit. Each blow was parried, avoided, or responded to in kind. Both combatants had managed to deal enough damage to the other that it truly was anyone's game at this point; it would be one final attack that would end it.

Black readied his blade, lunging towards Trunks to end his life. One slash. Two. Three. Four. Five. Each blow meant to rip the man limb from limb.

Trunks was ready. Familiar with slashing attacks, he ducked under the first, leapt over the second, slid to the left to avoid the third, stepped back as the fourth missed his torso, and flipped backwards, over Black himself, to dodge the final slash.

The Super Saiyan God landed, crouched, onto the ground, a stunned Black glaring at him from over his shoulder.

"How did you—?"

Trunks' movement was akin to skating, the God rushing along the ground. He swung his sword upward, in time to meet Black's own divine blade slashing towards the Earth in kind. An explosion accompanied the clashing of weapons, followed by a deafening CRACK! - both weapons shattered on contact with each other, Trunks' blade cracking innthe middle, snapping in half, while Black's sabre of ki broke completely, leaving his hands bare.

With swiftness, Black slammed his fist into Trunks' jaw. Trunks, in turn, brought his fist up to Black's chin; neither could force the other to budge. Bare palm deflected fist, feet strick torsos, and the two desperately fought against each other.

Trunks and Black ignited their palms, bringing their hands together to press two spheres of ki, one a brilliant red, the other crimson against a black core. The orbs pressed against each other, vying for dominance. In the end, neither found purchase and triggered an immense explosion around the two. It expanded outward in a dome, annihilating trees in every direction, kicking up dust and debris as it went.

As the flames cleared, Black and Trunks were sweating, flames licking against their bodies. Black let loose a volley of needle-like blasts. Trunks danced around each attack, yet his eyes failed to perceive the true strike. When the needles had finished falling, Black crossed the distance between them both, placing an outstretched hand right above Trunks' heart.

An explosion of force rocked Trunks' body. He felt vibrations course throughout his entire being at the moment Black's entire body seemed to force his fist into Trunks' chest. His mouth opened to shout in pain, his eyes rolling back into his head, and the sheer pressure of the blow forced him back. Trunks' crimson hair reverted to its lavender hue, and the young man careened into the distance, falling into the canopy of trees.

Trunks had fallen.

Gohan wanted to call out to Trunks, and he prepared to make a move on Black. He could kill him immediately, then rescue Trunks.

BOOM!

The planet quaked beneath their feet. Gohan, who had been intently watching the match between Trunks and Black, felt the massive waves of the explosion, followed immediately by a familiar ki dropping quickly. Gohan spun in mid-air, searching for the source of the disruption. In the distance, the young man saw what could only be described as a pillar of fire igniting in the distance. The horizon itself seemed to be aglow, a malicious sunrise speaking words of despair into the man's ears. Gohan needed only seconds to realise where the explosion was coming from.

The Western Capital.

"Bulma!" Gohan called out, Trunks momentarily pushed out of his mind as surprise and fear flooded him like ice.

"Tell me now, Gohan," a chilling voice spoke directly behind him. "Do you have any time to take your eyes off Trunks or I?"

A burning, searing sensation roared to life in Gohan's back. He couldn't see the blood, but he could feel it.

Black had sliced him along the back.

A/N: Happy Christmas to one and all, and if you do not celebrate Christmas, or if you're a member of the sect of Christians who celebrate on the 7th of January, Happy Holiday season. Two months since my last update, and you almost know the reason why: Pokémon came out and I got distracted for a solid month. But now, with the hype relatively died down, I was able to get a chapter out, and on Christmas too! I would have liked it to be longer, but I think this is as long as it could be without burning me out. Fight scenes are exhausting, and I never can tell when it's too long, when it isn't long enough, etc. But this ended well, and I am happy to have Bulma around to break it up.

But Bulma, Bulma, Bulma. She seems to be in a right bloody pickle at the moment, and things aren't looking too good for Gohan and Trunks either. I hope you all enjoyed the fighting this chapter, as it was possibly the most stressful part. Regardless, I am looking forward to bringing you all the next chapter of Chapter Black in 2023! Until then everyone, stay safe, have a happy holiday, and stay safe! As someone who recently lost someone, I cannot stress to treasure this limited time. It is important. Thank you all for sticking with me this long! I'll see you soon!