Chapter 15: Save the World

Mai, looking down on Joey's soulless body, asked Gohan to let her go: she needed to settle things with Dartz. Sensing her reformed heart, Gohan let her go, instead raising his power level so that, hopefully, he could call the others. Eventually, the Pharaoh, Tea, Tristan, Tien, Trunks and Chiaotzu joined him. A few minutes after they arrived, Gohan could sense Yamcha nearby and immediately flew off to meet with him while everyone else headed for Paradius Headquarters, Tien carrying Joey's defeated opponent, and Tristan carrying Joey..

Yamcha was trying to fight off three Orichalcos Soldiers, and they had each summoned the same monster Gohan fought in his battle. These summoned monsters were starting to beat him into the ground, and as soon as he saw this, Gohan turned Super Saiyan and launched three Masenkos at the soldiers, destroying them and disintegrating the summoned monsters. He then explained everything to Yamcha and they took off after the Pharaoh, meeting back up with Kaiba.

At that point, it turned out Mai had lost, and the Pharaoh was the next one challenged by the victor Rafael. They were on the rooftop at the time, and the Duel was quite close, with Timaeus being summoned, along with the Guardian Dreadscythe, and the use of Underworld Circle also proved to be interesting. Eventually, the Duel ended with Rafael using the last of his Life Points to re-summon his sacrificed monsters in an act of redemption. This turned out to be the only Duel so far in which the Seal of Orichalcos failed to take the loser's soul. After the Duel resolved, however, the building started collapsing. Kaiba's helicopter landed on the nearby helipad, and Tien with the man revealed to be one Valon on his back, Yamcha with Mai on his, Chiaotzu and Gohan flew to the waiting aircraft while the Kaiba Brothers ran on foot. The stairs to the helipad, which was the only way to get there by foot, soon gave way, and Trunks took the Pharaoh and Rafael in his arms and flew inside the helicopter.

The Pharaoh then asked Trunks if this happened in his timeline, to which he responded "No". Apparently, Paradius headquarters was in one of the first areas to be targeted by the Androids, whether or not by coincidence remained a mystery, but all the same, the organization was razed to the ground, and subsequently, the Future Leviathan was never reborn. By the time Trunks finished his story, Rafael gave Kaiba a computer chip with the location of Dartz's lair on it, and they found themselves surrounded by air-force war planes. They were taken to an aircraft carrier of a naval fleet and the people there pleaded with them to save the world. When asked why they couldn't help, they replied that not only was it outside their jurisdiction, but about five or six years ago, the fleet that the was decimated single-handedly by a flying bald man, with the aircraft carrier being the only survivor, forming the current fleet later on.

Soon, however, everyone left, except for the military forces, Tien, Yamcha and Chiaotzu, who decided to hang back unless they sensed something dangerous. From there, the KaibaCorp helicopter braved harsh weather to reach the island hideout of Dartz. Upon landing, everyone proceeded to move inside, except for the KaibaCorp personnel, Rafael and Trunks. Inside, they eventually found a room with carvings of people inside rectangular borders chiseled into stone. One just happened to be Yugi, and Gohan knew, because the energy he was sensing was his, that the carving was his soul, yet somehow, it seemed to be partially free to some extent.

Dartz then appeared, and Kaiba challenged him to a Duel on the spot, with Yugi volunteering to take part as well. For some reason, neither allowed Gohan to join in the Duel, so he was forced to watch from the sidelines. After a while, Dartz summoned four Mirror Knights and, although the Seal of Orichalcos had been played, Gohan was still able to sense some familiar presences, however unable to identify them as, by that point, the Seal had been reinforced, severely hamstringing his ability to sense energy inside. One thing that caught his attention though, was why each knight differed in height, and why the smallest one had a brown tail protruding through its lower armor.

The answer was quite worrying: after Kaiba destroyed one monster that kept regenerating the abilities of the knights, the head armor of each knight shattered and revealed Yugi, Joey, Mai and Pegasus. For a time, Yugi refused to obey an order given by Dartz to attack the Pharaoh, and Gohan noticed that his tail had flared up, but then a second reinforcement to the Seal of Orichalcos was played, leading to the tail dropping down and becoming limp, and also completely shutting off the inside world such that he was now unable to sense anything inside the barrier. At some point, Rafael came in demanding that Dartz set everyone free, but the latter instead rekindled the former's rage by revealing his involvement in the tragic accidents that led them to work for him in the first place, stripping his former employee of his soul as a result.

Eventually, Seto Kaiba was beaten despite getting Critias out, losing his soul as a result and he got thrown out of the arena afterwards by Dartz. He then proceeded to knock everyone out with some sort of magic that opened a giant eye, and Gohan was forced to go Super Saiyan to resist. The Pharaoh, after a long and harsh battle, managed to win, but his opponent disappeared through a portal. As soon as Tea, Tristan and Mokuba woke up, Gohan could sense something good. The Pharaoh looked shorter, and his tail, which had been hanging limp for a while, started to wrap itself around his waist. He turned his head, and it turned out to actually be Yugi. At the same time, Gohan could sense his power skyrocket, probably due to him having Saiyan genes and, technically, almost dying. Kaiba soon got up, and Joey came barging in followed by Trunks. However, Rafael's body remained motionless, and Gohan couldn't sense anything from it.

One of Kaiba's suits burst in, announcing that something was happening outside. Once there, everyone could see the nearby waters being disturbed, with an ancient city slowly rising out of the sea. Remembering the portal from earlier, Kaiba, Yugi, Joey, accompanied by Gohan and Trunks, decided to get to the bottom of things. The portal took them to the city itself, and once there, they reached the center where, apparently, a crystalline figure of Dartz on a throne stood under a gazebo-type structure. It disintegrated when Yugi (who had let the Pharaoh take control) touched it, and Dartz spoke to them, announcing that he was with the Leviathan he had been working to resurrect, and instead of using the souls of the Pharaoh, Kaiba and Joey, he used his own soul to wake it up.

Soon after he said this, something burst out from the sea below. It was a long, dark purple fish/dragon type creature; the Great Leviathan. Trunks and Gohan immediately went Super Saiyan while the other three summoned monsters along with the Dragons Timaeus, Critias and Hermos, who were then transformed into their true forms of knights. All the monsters then attacked, with Trunks and Gohan following suit via a barrage of ki blasts. Tien, Chiaotzu and Yamcha arrived, followed by Android 16 with Ironheart, Chris and Skye on his back as soon as Timaeus readied another strike, this time with multiply ability of a Kuriboh boosting its attack strength a thousand times. Nothing worked.

Someone else arrived, but it turned out to be Nappa again, who immediately powered up with the power of the Orichalcos and a Lightnig Aura and charged at Gohan. When asked how he survived his soul being taken a second time, Dartz actually revealed that, somehow, he was able to resist losing his soul, as if the Orichalcos couldn't tear it out. At that point, Gohan was hit with a realization, but there were more important things to worry about at the time. Nappa continued attacking, and just as he was about to land a blow on his opponent, something hit him in the back. When he turned, he saw Vegeta, and he charged at him instead. While Vegeta seemed to be surprised at how much stronger Nappa had become, he just went Super Saiyan and fired a Big Bang Cannon at him, destroying him for good.

The Leviathan then charged up its own energy blast and fired at Yugi, Kaiba and Joey. Yugi immediately had Timaeus create a barrier to stop the blast, but all monsters save the knights were destroyed by the attack. Just as it was readying a second attack, the sky lit up, and monsters descended from the light, led by the Dark Magician Girl, telling her army to join forces with the humans and attack the Great Beast. The Duelists summoned fresh monsters and launched another attack, assisted by Tien shooting Tri-Beams at the Leviathan's forehead, Chiaotzu firing a Dodon Ray, Yamcha firing a volley of ki blasts, Android 16 using his Hell's Flash, Trunks using one of his techniques, Vegeta using another Big Bang Cannon, someone unknown shooting it with a barrage of energy blasts and Gohan using a Masenko and the non-summoned monsters assisting in close combat. However, the only thing that happened was the Leviathan retaliating by shooting what appeared to be diamond-shaped energy blasts that impaled the summoned monsters, Tien, Yamcha, Chaiotzu, Timaeus, Critias and Hermos. Vegeta, Trunks, Android 16 and Gohan managed to dodge though.

"Gohan, perhaps it is time for you to release your power!" the Pharaoh spoke, knowing that they were fast running out of options. Joey taunted the Leviathan, which responded by shooting dark purple semi-liquid tentacles at all of them, with the Z fighters being the only ones able to dodge. The Duelists, meanwhile, were pulled towards the Leviathan when a disk of energy cut through the slime tentacles. Gohan recognized it as Krillin's Destructo Disk, and sure enough, he and Android 18 had arrived, the latter immediately blasting the Leviathan. Everyone paid a little bit too much attention to the new arrival though, as they found themselves ensnared again except for Gohan and Vegeta, the latter of which assumed a spread-eagled position gathering energy.

"Let them go Dartz!" he pleaded.

"No, these souls will further power up the Great Leviathan!" Dartz spoke, fueling the boy's anger.

"Let them go!"

"Sorry to disappoint child, but they shall be absorbed into the Beast where they will be reunited with their friends!"

"Let… them… go!"

"Are you hard of hearing, you insignificant little runt?"

"Let… them… go… you… monster!" Gohan shouted, whereupon he started screaming, the Earth itself quaking in response.

"Final Flash!" yelled Vegeta, thrusting his hands forward and shooting a powerful yellow beam at the Leviathan, which was countered with a purple mouth-blast.

As Gohan continued screaming, massive amounts of power were gushing out from him, which froze the trapped Duelists, Z fighters, Duel Monster Spirits and even the Leviathan in amazement. Gohan's hair further flared up, and electricity started crackling around him. At that point, lights also started bursting from the Leviathan and flowing into the Duel Disk of Yugi, the only thing that hadn't submerged beneath the Leviathan's skin. The Duel Spirits followed suit, flying into the Disk, and soon, Yugi, Joey, Kaiba and the Z fighters burst from the creature's stomach.

"How did you get us out of there?" Joey asked.

"By summoning them," the Pharaoh stated, pointing to where the three Egyptian Gods now waited. By then, Gohan had finished unleashing his power and he charged the Leviathan, landing many punches and kicks, which always knocked it backwards. It fled into the sky the first chance it got, followed by Gohan, Yugi and the three Gods. They soon came face to face with their foe and attacked, and while Gohan continued to beat it around, Obelisk, who was also attacking in close combat, wasn't having as much luck and the two other gods had to free it.

After the first attack, the Leviathan readied a strong blast, but the Pharaoh took control, still hovering in mid air, and immediately issued orders.

"Gohan, ready a Kamehameha wave!" was the first order given by the Pharaoh.

"Ka…" Gohan began, getting into the stance.

"Obelisk, Fist of Fury!"

"Me…"

"Slifer, Thunder Force Attack!"

"Ha…"

"Ra, ignite your mighty Blaze Cannon!"

"Me..."

"Attack!"

"HA!" Gohan shouted, thrusting his hands forward. The Blasts from him, Obelisk, Slifer and the Winged Dragon of Ra combined into one giant, extremely powerful beam that clashed with the Leviathan's attack and pushed it back. The Leviathan itself came into contact with the combined attacks shortly afterwards, disintegrating in their fury until they exploded, leaving it falling back down to earth and further breaking down until, by the time it hit the sea, it was little more than chunks of matter.

Atlantis started crumbling at that point, and Gohan, Joey, Kaiba and Yugi decided to take the portal back. The Z fighters just hovered in the sky, unsure of whether or not to leave. Just as Yugi was about to enter the portal, the Pharaoh stopped him, noting that something was wrong.

Dartz appeared behind them, transforming into the spirit of the Great Leviathan. Timaeus was summoned to combat the creature, but was instantly recalled due to sustaining a large wound. The Pharaoh, in spirit form, insisted that Yugi run, but his partner refused, instead deciding to help combat Dartz, with Gohan landing just as he insisted on staying. The Leviathan's spirit form crashed into that of the Pharaoh and started destroying him. After Yugi told him to focus on the light, the Leviathan's spirit instead targeted the young half-Saiyan, reasoning that due to the Saiyans having a knack and lust for fighting, the darkness in their hearts could rival that of the Pharaoh's darkness.

The Leviathan reared above Yugi, preparing to strike. Yugi, too, got into a battle position, going Super Saiyan. "Ka…" he started. "Me…" the Leviathan charged. "Ha…" it was a third of the way to its target. "Me…" it almost reached him. "HA!" Yugi shouted, thrusting his hands forward just as the Leviathan was about to impact, striking it at point blank range.

"No! This is impossible! You are powerless!" Dartz screamed.

"What made you think that?" Yugi asked.

"I captured your soul! I could sense that you had no power whatsoever to offer the Great Leviathan!"

"You said that Nappa could resist the Orichalcos didn't you?"

"Yes, but your soul was taken. Your power was offered to the Great Beast, yet you had none!"

"Maybe my half-Saiyan body managed to retain all of its power. Now take this!" Yugi shouted, further increasing his power. His aura started sparking electricity, his hair further flared up and his Kamehameha increased in strength to such magnitude that it darkened the sky, with a large blue beam blasting upwards from the once sunken city. The Leviathan's spirit started slowly breaking down, screaming, as it got reduced to nothingness by the massive Kamehameha.

Dartz reappeared, with Ironheart, Chris, Skye and Android 16 landing by the portal. This time, the teal haired, long haired man, instead of having one eye coloured teal and the other yellow had both eyes the latter color. Gohan and Yugi could also sense that the dark presence they felt inside him was gone, and after that, it was a father-son and father-daughter reunion. They beckoned Android 16, Yugi and Gohan to the portal, thanking them for saving them all.

Joey and Kaiba, along with Tea, Tristan, Mokuba and the pilots, took off in the helicopter by that point, and Atlantis sank back into the sea, creating massive waves. As the now clear sky approached sunset, somewhere on an island beach lay Yugi and Gohan, with Android 16 watching over them. Soon, they heard a voice.

"Yugi, Gohan, wake up."

End note: I'll probably update this story later in the week, as I have almost reached my goal. I know I should have probably put this at the beginning, but I took inspiration for the chapter name from an episode of Dragonball Z with the same name.